Somewhere Only We Know
by faithfullyxo
Summary: Monchele centered, Lea POV. The cast goes on a vacation together to relax before Season 3 filming starts. Lea is secretly in love with Cory, and is dying to act upon her feelings. Will their friendship become something more? Read and review, please!
1. Prelude

. prelude .

May 2011

I see him every day. And I don't say 'every day' as an exaggeration. I really mean it. We shoot scenes together, sing songs to each other, practice our dance moves as a pair, go to photoshoots and pose like mannequins with each other, and if I wanted to, I could peer out of the window in the back of my trailer here on the lot and see right into the back of his trailer. Damn him, he never closes those blinds. It's like he wants me to look at him as he memorizes his lines and practices singing his solos.

It's almost a cruel joke that our trailers are right next to each other, as assigned on the first day when we shot the pilot. It was done alphabetically by last name, of course. Mine is Michele, and his is Monteith. And why should they have used my real last name, Sarfati? That would have made things too easy. We became friends right off the bat because of this placement. I hadn't been in my trailer for ten minutes on the first day before I heard a hard, loud rap on the door. I cautiously answered it, not knowing what to expect or who could be there, but there Cory was. He had tried to make coffee for the first time in the small kitchenette of his trailer, and when he opened the individual, single-serving packet of ground coffee, he tugged too hard, causing the plastic wrapper to split in half, sending most of the ground coffee to the linoleum floor. I couldn't help but laugh as he explained what had happened, and I offered him my packet without hesitating. I had already had four cups of joe that morning.

It didn't take long for Cory and I to become best friends, along with the rest of the cast that we work with. After two whole years into this job, these people become an extension of yourself. After all, we all work together six days a week, and on the seventh day, we all meet up for late brunch at our favorite diner in Los Angeles. And I love hanging out with everyone, I really do, because I love each of them as if they were my brothers and sisters. But secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, I wish that Cory and I could just be together. Just us two. Alone. Without the distractions of the job, the press, the city, the fans, the attention, our real lives... Is that too much to ask? Complete and total isolation with the man that I've been in love with for a year, the same man that has no idea that I have these feelings for him?

Lord, give me strength.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

These tours always seem to go far too quickly for my liking.

I mean, my friends and I are privileged to take our songs and our show on the road, perform to sold-out audiences around the globe, and we get paid real good money to have a good time. Who else really gets to do something like this? We kill ourselves during filming of Glee. 5am call times, dance rehearsals, recording studio sessions, memorizing lines so we can shoot the scenes, and very often late nights – all of this, six days a week to produce one episode. One 42-minute episode. Our families think we're crazy for subjecting ourselves to such crazy work schedules and hectic lifestyles, but the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices. Sure, I haven't been able to sleep for more than four hours during the night, but I guess that's why they give us comfortable beds in the back of our trailers on the lot, for our quick little catnaps when we can fit them in. But the feeling of going on tour and singing the songs and dancing the well-rehearsed steps night after night has been nothing short of exhilarating. When we film, our crew members don't give us any kind of feedback. When you take the songs and dance moves to a stage in front of 40,000 people, it just makes you feel like all your work and all the shit that you went through is worth every second.

And the people that I'm doing this whole thing with aren't so bad either. When we first started this show in 2009, these people were just close friends and co-workers. But now, they're my entire family. I can't imagine going through this experience without them; no one can make me smile, laugh, think, sing, and feel like these people. Dianna and Jenna have become sisters to me. We really share our lives with each other, and we all know far too much about each other. In fact, those two are the only two that know about my love for my leading male in my life, Cory. They don't like to make it easy for me either – they always make sure that we get paired for solos, dance moves, photoshoots, interviews, red carpet walks… you name it, they always find a way to stick me with Cory. And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining in the slightest. I could literally spend every minute of my day next to him and not get tired of all of his talk about hockey, his drumming on whatever objects are around him, his obsession with Angry Birds, or his humming of whatever song is stuck in his head for the week. Call me lame, call me head over heels, call me ridiculous… I don't really give a shit. Let me be in love with the man I have had a twinkle in my eye for for the past two and a half years.

I felt a heavy hand press down on my shoulder from behind as the airplane landed on the runway, the same heavy hand that always finds its way to my shoulder every time the plane lands. I bit my lip and smiled as I turned my head to see Cory's hand resting where it always does. He always knows how happy I get when the plane lands – I admit that I have the biggest fear of flying, which is inconvenient when you're a celebrity. In the air, I am the biggest ball of nerves, but once the airplane touches land and we have reached our destination, Cory always places his hand firmly down on my shoulder to congratulate me on making it through a tear-free flight. (Did I mention that I sometimes cry when I fly?) It's become our thing, that shoulder press. And even if I do happen to cry during a flight, like if there's too much turbulence or if we're flying over water and the plane turns and all you can see out of the window are the ripples and waves of the ocean, I just cover my eyes with my big oversized bug-eye sunglasses and he never has to know.

"Last one of the tour," he tells me in my ear, sending a small shiver down my spine. He doesn't look happy, instead, he looks saddened and disappointed that the Glee Live 2011 tour has ended.

I nod my head and pout my bottom lip. "Don't remind me," I mutter as I reach up and rub the top of his hand with mine. "Who am I going to sing to tonight when I get back to my apartment?"

"We should just Face Time and sing to each other."

You know what, it wasn't _that_ crazy of an idea. It almost made me want to reach for my iPhone that second to start a call to start the sing-a-long.

Instead, I just chuckled and moved my hand off of his, and with this movement, he released his hold of my shoulder. I let out a heavy sigh as I looked out of the window of our small private aircraft. Sure enough, there were the California palm trees and sunshine. We were home. Well, I wasn't. My real home is in New York City, but for the duration of this job, I have to claim Los Angeles as my home base. Instead of going to my real home, we had all decided that we would spend one week together in a rented beach house in La Jolla to recover from the tour and to relax for the last few days before filming for Season 3 begins, starting tomorrow morning when the sun rises. There was no doubt that we were all looking forward to this vacation. Could you just imagine the 12 of us in one house for a week? Shit's going to get crazy. But you know what? This could be the most amazing crazy shit ever.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Why won't you start?" I mutter under my breath as I turn the key in the ignition of my car. "Start, damn it!" Like talking to it is going to make it work.

But it doesn't work. The engine sputters and makes weird sounds, sounds that are unfamiliar to me, but I can make some assumptions still as to what they are. I know I can't possibly be out of gas, and last time I checked, all the nuts and bolts and plugs seemed to be in place. And then it dawned on me. The only thing that could have happened, because I tend to forget about it all the time, is that I left my headlights on. I never switched them off.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. My car battery is dead. This is definitely not a good start to my week-long vacation.

Of course, I had to be the last to leave. Call me fashionably late, if you will. I always have the best intentions on leaving on time, or even early. But I seem to pack my entire wardrobe into several bags, and just when I think I'm ready to go, I always remember that I need to pack something else, something extra, something that I think that I might need while I'm away that can't possibly be replaced... All things that have been passed from mother to daughter, I've convinced myself over the years. And here I was now, sitting in a dead car with a trunk full of luggage.

But now, it's like... who do I call? I suppose could always call AAA or another company for immediate help so I could be on my way, but what fun is that? Jenna and Dianna left for La Jolla hours ago, literally. They were gone before the sun even rose, since they volunteered to pick up the keys and go grocery shopping to stock up the house before everyone got there. Kevin, Mark, and Chord lived too far away to give me a jump, and besides, they were probably too far away from me anyway. Chris and Ashley... well, I doubt either of them would know how to jump a car, and I know the way Chris packs. There would be no room for all of our bags, along with Ashley's, in Chris' coupe if they were to take me with them. Amber was driving Naya, Heather, and Darren down to the house, and again, there would be no room for me, but I put money on it that Darren would know how to jump a car. He seems manly like that. The only other person who I knew that was driving down by himself was Cory, and that was because he had errands to run first, and he knew that he would only be getting there at night, far after everyone else was due to get there.

As I sat in my recently deceased car, I figured that there are far more terrible things than leaving late with Cory and arriving to the party when it was in full swing. In fact, this might work out quite nicely. I mean, how bad could it be to sit shotgun alongside the man that I have been secretly in love since 2009? We could always talk about... well... something. Something else besides the show and the tour. Something else besides work. But really, what did that leave us? I would have to come up with something fast. Maybe I'll ask him questions about his band, or I could declare my love for a song on the radio and I can explain what the song does to me, or I can ask him to stop at a Starbucks along the way and we could debate which Frappuchinio flavor is the best... anything that I can think about to get to know the man better than I already do. Oh, I can ask him about Canada! I bet he could rate all the different brands of maple syrup found across the country on a 1 to 10 scale!

But, none of this can even begin to happen if I don't call him first.

I reached into my purse and pulled out my iPhone effortlessly, as if it were a magnet to my palm. After unlocking the screen, I found his number on my list of Favorites in my phone book. With one quick press on the screen, my phone began dialing Cory's number. I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth nervously, as I tend to do when I'm, well, nervous. The phone rang five times before going to voicemail. Shit!

"Hey, this is Cory. Leave a message and I'll get back to you!"

A quick beep played before I had to come up with some sort of message. I took a deep breath and delivered a desperate plea.

"Cory, this is Lea. I need your help! My car battery died, and I have no way of getting to the beach house. Just wondering and hoping and pleading that you would come pick me up from my apartment complex and we could head down there together. Please call me back, you know my number. Bye."

Sadly, I had to toss my phone to the seat next to me, praying it would ring before it even left my fingertips. But it didn't. I sat there, in my driver's seat, and just waited. He'll call soon. Maybe it was just in his pocket and he couldn't get to it before it went to voicemail. Or he could be driving, and talking on the phone while driving is dangerous. Or maybe he was still packing and didn't hear his phone ring under a pile of clothes. Damn it, I just hope he realizes I called.

I closed my eyes for a few moments, just to relax and try to wait patiently, but not even after a few minutes, I received a text message. Quickly, I reached for my phone.

"See u in a few :)"


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Before I knew it, I was sitting alongside Cory in his SUV. Now, I'm not going to lie, butterflies were fluttering in my stomach like it was the first damn day of spring. Cory looked good… almost too good, in fact. He shed his 'Finn' look quickly, sporting a short, scruffy beard and noticeably longer hair that I just wanted to run my manicured little fingers through. And don't even get me started on his outfit that I just wanted to rip off of his body. An olive-green t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. Could he be any more perfect, really?

I swear I don't get like this around other guys. I'm not some strange lustful animal like I must come off as. Excuse me if this comes off as too much, but I've fantasized about this man for as long as we've been doing this show. And not even all of these fantasies are sexual or smutty (although sometimes they just so happen to slip in there). When I'm bored, I sometimes fantasize about us grocery shopping, or going to the car wash together and being able to stay in the car as it goes through the soap and big brushes, or going out for ice cream on a warm summer night. We do some of these things now, but with our friends, and that, folks, just doesn't count. I love spending time alone with Cory, even if it's just a quiet drive like this, because all of this thinking is clearly keeping me from forming a conversation with the man of my dreams.

I had to come up with something to say, and quick. Otherwise, Cory will just think that I'm a weirdo that accepts rides and doesn't show appreciation when they show up. I cleared my throat and looked his direction. "Thanks for picking me up."

"You already thanked me when I packed the amount of luggage fit for a small army in the trunk," Cory replied with a smirk as he rested his hand casually on the wheel as he sped down the highway. He was wearing sunglasses, of course, so I couldn't see the sparkle in his eye, but I knew it was there.

I just chuckled somewhat nervously. "Well, at least you know that I really mean it. If I didn't get so lucky with you picking me up, it looks like I would have had to have stayed home."

"Well, we couldn't have let that happen," Cory laughed. "This should be a good time. It wouldn't have been the same without you. I mean, you're usually the one who gets bombed first and really starts the party."

I had to laugh, because he was speaking the truth. "You know too much about me."

"Do I?" he asked, and I could see him cock his eyebrow above his sunglasses.

I gathered my hair in my hands and tossed it over my shoulder. "I think you do, Mr. Monteith. You really know too much about me."

His lips curled up into a smile. "Test me. Let's see how much I really do know about you."

Game on, Cory.

"Fine," I laughed as I rubbed my palms together, thinking of something obscure and silly to ask him, something that he wouldn't know about me even if he read my most devoted fan site. And right away, I knew I had to make this game interesting. Here come the dirty questions. "Where did I lose my virginity?"

Shock came over Cory's face. His jaw dropped, and I could have sworn that I saw all of the blood drain from his face. "Wow, Lea, clearly I see where you're going with this game!" he exclaimed with a booming laugh that filled the car. "Look at you, you little freak! How would you expect me to know this?"

I couldn't help but laugh, nearly as loud as he did. "You said that you knew a lot about me, and you asked me to test you, and I am. So, answer the question. Let's see how much you know." Inside, I was dying, but I really had to put on my best actress face and play this thing as cool as a cucumber.

"Alright, alright. You've got a game," Cory replied as he sat up a little straighter in the drivers seat. "I do know that back in high school, you were a bit of a wild child. Very different from Rachel Berry, I assume. I am also aware of this special relationship that you have with a man named Jack Daniels, and I've seen what he can do to a body like yours after a few drinks. I know for a fact that there is nothing fun to do in New Jersey except plan your own high school parties when your parents go into New York City for the night. Additionally, I know that you didn't really have any steady boyfriends back then, so it was probably a sloppy, drunken night. With all of the information that I have gathered, I have concluded that you lost your virginity in your bedroom. Bonus addition for an extra point, you were 17 years old."

I had to admit, I sat there stunned at how much he knew about me to arrive at some sort of answer. And I had to give him 100% credit, he was spot on. I just couldn't believe that he had put all of that together so factually. He took my silence and ran with it.

"Ding ding ding! Two points for me!" he laughed and exclaimed. "I'm good! Really good! Come on, tell me how good I am!"

I just sat there and laughed, covering my eyes with my hands. "Fine, you're so good, Cory!" I replied sarcastically. "Shit, that was a smart answer!"

"I bet you wouldn't know where and when I lost my virginity," Cory probed as he looked my direction, peeking down at me over his sunglasses before quickly returning his eyes to the open road.

"June 10th, 2001 around 7:30 at night, which was the most romantic and sensual night of your life?" I quickly replied, whipping up a date and time out of thin air sarcastically.

He paused for a moment to think, before shaking his head. "Not even close."

"I figured," I laughed. "I was just bullshitting with you."

Cory changed lanes on the highway and grew quiet. I looked over at him and I could tell that he was definitely thinking about the big moment in his life. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I was 14. Her name was Jen. She was the hottest girl in Victoria, and she was a few years older than me. We had been flirting for a while and she came over to my house one day when my parents were out at work. She came over, high out of her mind, and brought over all this booze with her, and we started drinking, and one thing led to another, and it just happened. I haven't spoken to her since then, no less seen her around. But yes, that's my big romantic moment."

I sat in the passenger seat, unsure of exactly what to say. So, I figured humor was the best response. "So I was really halfway right, it was the most romantic night of your entire life, which I think deserves at least one point."

He nodded. "Fine, but only one little measly point."

"I'll take what I can get," I smirked. I could tell he was feeling off, though. I had to come up with another question, and fast, to get him back up and going. "Okay, next question. What is my favorite snack to eat on set?"

"This is a joke, right?" Cory smiled. "You always go straight for the dark chocolate vegan cupcakes. It's like those things should be turned into some sort of IV drip for you."

I just had to roll my eyes. Again, he was right. "That was too easy!"

"No, that was just another point for the Michele-master!"

And then I died again. Why is he doing this to me?

"Okay, final question because you clearly know way too much about me and you're just making a killing with points. What's my most hated word in the English language?"

Cory giggled before looking over at me. Taking one hand off the wheel, he took off his sunglasses quickly and grinned. "_Moist_."

I cringed at the sound of the word, despite the unbearably sexy look he was giving to me. It was like he knew how badly I wanted to jump over the center console and just straddle him, and like he knew how much I just wanted to kiss him when it didn't say in any script that I had to. "You win!"

Cory put his sunglasses back on and cheered as he watched the road. "I'm so good at you!" he exclaimed with a laugh. "Shit, that wasn't even hard. Does this mean that I spend to much time around you?"

"No!" I quickly replied, probably faster than I really should have, "I mean, we do work together almost all day, practically every day. I should have figured that you would have picked up on everything."

He just smiled. God, I loved it when that boy smiled. I noticed that he was smiling a lot more than he usually does. And I'm sure I looked like I was a little girl going to Disney World for the first time, as well. We were quiet for a little while. He focused on driving, while I looked out the window, admiring the scenery that we were passing. Lush, full, green trees lined the highway, and the skyline in front of us was simply stunning. California wasn't a shabby place to be, especially when you're with the man you love. Even if it's a secret love. It still counts.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It was happening. The windows were open, the music was turned up to an unreasonable level, and the two of us were shouting the lyrics to each other as the wind blew through our hair. No, this isn't a clip from our little show, this was real life. But Mr. Schue would have been proud if this was the show. He was playing the drums on the steering wheel while I sang into a half-full water bottle. See my optimism and happiness here? We sped down the highway, only minutes away from our final destination, like we still had hours left and hundreds of miles still to go. And as the sun started to set, it all began to feel like a picture perfect moment.

"Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

Just a city boy

Born and raised in South Detroit

He took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

A singer in a smoky room

A smell of wine and cheap perfume

For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on…"

Honestly, it was probably one of the coolest moments in my life. I mean, I never do stuff like this. Whenever I'm driving or going anywhere, I usually just listen to my soft rock stations and allow myself to mellow out. But being with Cory just makes me open up and feel like a liberated person. We just sang and sang and sang, sang like no one was watching, sang like no one was listening, sang like no one was in the cars around us, and sang like we didn't have a single care in all the world. I honestly gave Cory a lot of credit. How that man can play the drums on the steering wheel while still keeping the car straight while singing while navigating the streets is a huge task, and like anything else in life, he killed it. If it were me, we would have been in a ditch somewhere a few miles back.

"Man, I can't remember the last time we sang that song," Cory laughed after the song had ended.

I pushed the hair away from my face. "A whole 24 hours ago, maybe?" I responded as I took a sip of water from my water bottle microphone.

"Feels like ages ago," he smirked as he signaled to get off at the next exit. We were only minutes away from all of our friends at our house for the week. As excited as I was to see everyone else, I secretly wished that it was just us two escaping from the world for a week, going to some private island where no one would be able to find us, somewhere only we would know about. And I speak like Cory has the same sort of feelings that I have and that he would go on a trip with me to this secret location, but that's okay, he doesn't necessarily need to know my fantasy plans.

About twenty minutes later, we pulled into the driveway of our vacation mansion for the week. It was stunning, to say the absolute least. It was a large three story beach house with intricate Spanish-influence details surrounding the property. Honestly, I had lost my breath when I first laid eyes on it. It was so much more beautiful in person than in the pictures on the rental website. All of our friends' cars lined the driveway in front of us, and I swear, from inside the car, I could hear Amber's loud and infectious laugh. This is going to be fun.

Finn hopped out first, slamming the car door behind him. I quickly followed as I snatched my purse from the floor and left the vehicle. Close on his heels, we walked up the stairs to the house and let ourselves in.

The inside of the house looked just like the photos. Elegant, sophisticated, and spacious. A long hallway was cluttered with some suitcases and bags, along with coolers, and I knew that as soon as everyone had walked in, they all must have dropped their bags and ran around like they were on the newest season of The Real World or something. We followed the sound of laughter and talking to the second floor, and as soon as everyone saw us, they all stopped what they were doing and greeted us warmly.

"My love!" Dianna squealed as she ran over to me and gave me a warm hug. Her short blonde hair brushed up against my face and she smelled like chlorine. Damn it, she went in the pool without me.

I hugged her back and greeted her warmly, along with everyone else. Really, I hugged everyone. You might think that it's normal to greet everyone with a hug, but each hug is a whole personal transaction with a special greeting and message. And yes, they all smelled like chlorine. They all went in the pool!

Darren was obviously the last one out. He was still in his swim trunks and his curly brown hair was still wet, and as if that wasn't enough, the red t-shirt he was wearing clung like saran wrap to his wet chest. He gave me a soggy hug, getting some pool water on my white tank top. "Sorry about that," he chuckled as he looked down at my chest. His damp shirt made my shirt just wet enough that it became slightly see-through.

I laughed as I pulled my shirt away from my chest. "It's okay," I replied. "Not like anyone hasn't seen my bra before," I remarked, referring to all of the times that the boys "accidentally" came into our changing room or "forgot" to grab something out of one of our bags.

Dianna tugged me off to the side with a devilish grin on her face. I knew something was up. "The room situation…" she started to say as she let go of my arm.

"Yeah, what's going on with that? Where do I bring my bags?"

She giggled and shifted her eyesight to the side to give Jenna a look. "Well, when we all got here, we claimed our rooms. First ones here get first dibs, and so on. You and Cory are obviously the last two to get here, so…"

I smirked. "Okay, so we'll share a room. No biggie. Bunk beds, two twins, what's up with the room?"

"One full size bed."

Alarms went off in my head. Every butterfly that found its home in my stomach was fluttering around like they were on fire. I was going to have to sleep in the same bed with the man I love for an entire week. No big deal, Lea. Just try not to flood the damn room! Plus, this was a serious, serious issue that needs addressing. My bed back at my apartment is a full size bed. No big deal. But, Cory is a pretty big guy. Like, his legs are probably the size of my legs and half my torso. In photoshoots, I have to stand on crates to reach a proper level for a picture to be viewed seriously. How were the two of us going to fit in this one bed together? And really, what was Cory going to say about it? My worst nightmare would be Cory letting me have the room to myself and he sleeps on the couch for the week. If that happened, well, I would be pretty upset. Why wouldn't he want to share a bed with me? I mean, we are best friends. No big deal.

"You're so ridiculous," I whispered and laughed as I tossed my head back. "You all planned this, didn't you?"

Dianna pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, the hell you don't," I replied as I playfully slapped her on her arm. "Where is our room, anyway?"

"Down the stairs on the right. It's the one that has the big teal comforters."

Quickly, I galloped down the stairs found the bedroom right away. Dianna said this was a full sized bed, but this looked like a glorified twin sized bed to me. I knew it already. Cory and I were going to either have to spoon or sleep back to back to make this work. As I was looking at the bed and observing the room, I heard heavy footsteps clomp down the stairs behind me. "Where do you want me to put your bags?" Cory asked as he walked into our bedroom.

"In here. We have to share this room," I reluctantly replied, studying his face for some sort of reaction.

Cory looked around the room quickly before nodding his head. "Okay," he replied nonchalantly. "Let me go get the bags. Want to give me a hand with some of yours?"

I nodded before looking back at our bedroom, unsure of how this sleeping arrangement was exactly going to work. "Sure."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It didn't take me long to slip on my bathing suit. In fact, as soon as Cory brought in my bag that I knew I packed my bathing suit in, I tossed it on our… yes, our… bed and cracked that bad boy open. Thankfully, I packed about twenty different options, and the first one that I pulled out was the sexiest option that I had packed. Why start out slow when you can just whip out the big guns right away, literally? I retreated into our own personal (!) bathroom and quickly slipped out of the clothes I came here in and into my black string bikini that was detailed with small silver beads around the trim of the top. I fixed my hair so that my waves fell gently and spontaneously over my shoulders. Quickly, I shuffled over to the full-length mirror that hung over the bathroom door and I looked at myself. Shit, I looked good. All of the craziness from the show and the tour really put me in good shape. Time for me to get out there and go straight to the pool, which was where everyone else was starting to gather once again.

With confidence, I pulled the bathroom door open and walked out into the bedroom. I padded over to the suitcases and found my matching black flip flops and a fun pink and white polka dot towel. I knew I wouldn't need a hat or sunglasses, as the sun was beginning to set over southern California. And just as I was about to walk out of the bedroom, Cory came in. I watched eyes widen as he saw me in my bathing suit, and I'm not going to bullshit you, that was easily one of the best feelings in the world.

"Coming out to the pool?" I asked with a small smirk as his eyes studied my body. Clearly, I was doing something right.

He nodded and made eye contact with me. "Yeah, I was just coming in here for my trunks. The cooler is filled with beer out there. I know you like Coronas, so I got you your own twelve-pack."

Baby boy, you know me so well. "Sounds great," I smiled. "You might have to get me another pack tomorrow, you know," I chuckled.

"You better pace yourself, Sarfati. I don't want to have to carry you to bed tonight," Cory replied with a smirk as he continued to walk towards his one suitcase that he had placed in the corner of the bedroom.

I couldn't help but just press my lips together in a tight smile. What the hell did he mean by that? Did he not want to carry me like the princess I am back to my room and lay me down in bed gently as he dressed me in my silky pajamas so gently as to not wake me before kissing me sweetly goodnight? Not that I've had that sort of thing play out in my head before… But still!

"You should know by now that I know how to hold my alcohol!" I protested out of force. "I'm the queen of shots!"

Cory laughed as he unzipped his suitcase and rummaged through his clothing, wrinkling them as he dug to the bottom of the pile. "I'm pretty sure you can't take as many shots as me. Look at the size of my body, and then look at the size of yours. I'm built to handle alcohol." He found his bathing suit and placed it on the bed before he picked up his suitcase and tossed it back into the corner of the room.

"We're just going to have to see about this," I smirked as I crossed my arms over my chest. "I have a feeling we're going to be doing a liquor store run by the end of the night."

And then, right in front of me like he didn't even think twice, he pulled his t-shirt off over his head. As many times as I've seen this man shirtless, it never gets old. I seriously couldn't help but pull on my bottom lip with my teeth as I looked at him, and I knew I had to turn around before I made an ass out of myself. "I'll see you out there," I told him as I walked out of the bedroom. It wasn't my first choice of options in the "Things to do when Cory Monteith starts undressing in front of you" category, but I knew I couldn't just stand there and stare at him like some sort of creep.

So, I went to find that cooler full of Coronas with my beach towel over my arm and my flip flops on my feet. I went up the stairs and entered the kitchen, where coolers were lined up like we were in a department store. I opened the first one I saw, and that was all filled with water. I grabbed a bottle of water, since you never know when you'll want to switch it up. I moved on to the second cooler, and that was all soda. Reserved for breakfast, I figured, so I didn't take one. Cooler number three was filled with my personal heaven. I quickly grabbed a Corona and shut the lid before picking up a slice of lime from the countertop. I was going to have to thank that someone once I figure out who they were. I quickly popped the top off of the beer and pushed the slice of lime in before walking out of the kitchen and through the sliding glass doors that led to the deck that featured the pool and hot tub.

"Woo!" Kevin called out from the pool as he watched me walk over to an empty chair. "Girl, you lookin' fine!"

"You want a piece of this?" I giggled as I took a seat next to Amber. Kevin always knew how to make a woman feel good about herself, which was one of the many, many reasons why we all loved him. I kicked my feet up on the pool chair and took a sip of my beer. Oh, sweet vacation.

"How's the room situation?" Amber asked with a smile as she held onto some sort of blue mixed drink.

I looked at her and I just had to smile. "It's fine. I have no problem with it, he has no problems with it. We'll make it work."

And it was true. Cory and I were going to make the best roomies this house was ever going to see. We were going to share the bathroom space equally, respect the suitcase space, and give each other enough of the blanket for comfortable sleeping. Well, I mean, he doesn't know we're going to do these things yet, but I know. I'll inform him soon enough.

Amber and I spoke for a while about anything that really came into our minds. We were always good at random, pointless conversation, and we were also really good at cracking each other up. Amber has the loudest and most infectious laugh out of all of us, and I'm fairly sure if there was ever some sort of laughing competition, she would take grand prize. In all of the laughter that Amber and I shared, I didn't even notice that Cory had come out from the house and jumped right into the pool with Kevin, Chris, Darren, and Harry.

"Pool full of sexy," Amber muttered under her breath before taking a sip of her drink.

I laughed and nodded. "It's not complete until you get in there."

She held up her hand and I gave her a quick high-five. "I'll see you in a few," she said before putting down her drink and taking off her bathing suit cover-up to reveal a silver one-piece. Before I knew it, she was in the pool.

I surveyed the deck area while taking another sip of my beer. Sitting alone on this chair, I couldn't help but notice where everyone else was. Mark, Jenna, and Ashley were talking over by an umbrella-covered table diagonal from me. Dianna was bent over her iPhone, texting her boyfriend, I'm sure. Chord wasn't by the pool at all, and in fact, I hadn't seen him since we greeted each other since I arrived. Wonder where he was. Naya and Heather were in the pool on the far end having handstand competitions underwater. I wasn't even under the water and I knew Heather was kicking ass. You can't challenge Heather at any sort of body contest without knowing you were going to lose.

"You coming in?" I heard from the pool, drawing my attention away from Heather and Naya. I snapped my head towards the boys, and my eyes connected with Cory's. I smiled like a fool instinctively. I couldn't even control it.

"Now?" I asked coyly. "I haven't even finished my first beer."

"Neither have I," Kevin responded as he raised his empty beer bottle. He looked at it, and lowered his eyes. "Oh, wait…"

I laughed before taking another sip. I placed my bottle on a table next to the chair, swung my feet over the side, and stood up. With my hands on my hips and my feet together in a very Rachel Berry pose, I looked into the pool at the boys and smirked. They all looked so cute, the way the water made all of their hair lay flat, and the way that drops of water beaded up on their arms and bare chests. I had to get in there. They were just too much to resist.

I walked quickly around to the stairs of the pool. "Oh, no, no," Cory said as he swam over to the stairs that I was approaching. "That's the easy way in."

"That's the only way in," I said as I stepped into the pool. Shit, the water was FREEZING cold! You'd think a house like this would at least have a heated pool! I stood on the first step, waiting for my body to adjust to the temperature before taking another step.

"You're getting in this pool now," Cory smirked as he swam up to my legs and locked his arms around them.

I felt paralyzed in fear. I couldn't help but screech and scream as Cory managed to pick me up from around my knees, spun around until my back was facing the rest of the pool, and jumped up in the air before bringing me under the water with him. And as we were under the water, he moved his arms from my knees to around my waist as he swam with me to the deep end.

Now, while the water was still freezing and he did everything that I completely wanted to avoid, I wanted to stay under that water with him for as long as possible (or until I lost the small amount of breath I caught during my screaming), just to have that time alone together. But it didn't last long. He popped up with me after only a few short seconds, bringing me with him. The two of us were in the deep end with everyone else over on the shallow end. Cory swam back over to the guys and Amber while I worked on getting all of my wet hair off of my face. As I fixed myself, Dianna and I looked at each other. She smiled and winked at me, before shaking her head slightly, careful not to let everyone else notice.

This was going to be a ridiculously long week.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone for reading "Somewhere Only We Know"! I absolutely love writing this story, and I'm so happy that you all are reading it! While I didn't plan on this being a very long story, I am LOVING the way that it is all coming out and I wouldn't be opposed to writing a sequel when the time comes (and don't worry, this story isn't ending anytime soon)! It means the world to me to have your support! **

**If you haven't seen the cover to the story by now, here it is – ./tumblr_lrdz4msCyX1qko2mfo1_ **

**And check out my profile for links on following me on Tumblr and Twitter!**

**Enjoy! - Therese**

**Chapter Six**

"Truth or dare?" Dianna asked Chris when the glass beer bottle stopped spinning on the coffee table in their living room, the neck of the amber glass pointing towards him.

Chris' lips curled up into a smile. "Dare."

I loved when people picked _dare_. Showed that some people still had some guts in the world. And I hate when you play this game and EVERYONE picks _truth_. Then, you're not even playing a game. That's just an interview. Or a therapy session, depends how you look at it. I'm always a dare picker. No matter how gross, funny, embarrassing, or weird the dare is, you man (or woman up, I should really say) and just do it. One time, I picked dare and I had to lick the bottom of someone's foot. Yes, it was the grossest thing ever, but it really spiced up the party. That's sorta my thing.

"Ooh," Dianna cooed as she looked around at us, impressed with Chris' willingness to do something. "I have a good one for you. Go skinny-dipping."

And almost as if we were on Saved By The Bell, practically on cue, we all started to _ooh_ and _ahh_, laughing and cheering Chris on as he stood up from the position he was sitting in on the floor. He was going to skinny dip. This boy was actually going to hop into the pool without any clothes on. Now, I admit, we had been drinking for hours now. This wasn't exactly the first round of the game, either. So far, we've all had five or six turns. And each time, the dares got more interesting and more outrageous. But Dianna really stepped it up this round. I wonder what was in store for the rest of us for the next few rounds…

Chris started walking out of the room and towards the sliding glass doors in the kitchen that led to the pool. We all got up and scurried behind him, quick on his heels to watch him accept the challenge and complete the dare. He bravely slid the glass sliding door open and stepped out onto the deck.

"He's really going to do it!" Ashley laughed as we all watched Chris pull his t-shirt off over his head.

We all made it out onto the deck to watch Chris. His shirt was already on the floor, and then quickly, he dropped his pants and underwear, kicking them off to the side. His skin was nearly translucent, as white as a fresh bar as Ivory soap. We all cheered and hollered, cheering him on. And honestly, I just couldn't help but laugh. Tears were starting to form in my eyes and my cheeks were in pain from smiling so hard. And with quick movements, we all watched him move his hands to the front of his body to hold on to his junk and he took a running start before jumping right into the freezing cold swimming pool. Shit, Chris Colfer was my hero.

"My turn! My turn!" he called out as soon as his head came above the water and he swam back towards the group. "Get the damn bottle, because I am spinning it and getting one of you guys in here!"

"Only if we call dare, babe," Darren smirked as Chord ran into the house to get the bottle.

Now, we all knew that Darren Criss was a straight man. However, since he and Chris had the relationship storyline on the show, they had become flirty towards each other, even if it was jokingly. Chris knew that there was no way to get Darren to switch teams, and Darren was extremely comfortable with his sexuality to have absolutely no concerns or reservations in a fictional homosexual relationship on the show. It was just cute when Darren and Chris acted as if they were the old married couple of the group, bringing a different vibe to our little family.

Just moments later, Chord returned with the empty beer bottle. He gave it to Chris, who had swam up to the edge of the pool. With his nude body still submerged under the water, he demanded, "Everyone get around here. I'm spinning and one of you is getting selected."

And as he asked, we all gathered around. My smile was still on my face, even though I was hoping and praying that I wasn't going to get picked. Cory can't see all of my goods on the first day, you know. We still had an entire week left for that.

With a flick of his wrist, Chris quickly spun the bottle. _Please don't land on me, please don't land on me, please don't land on me_, I repeated in my head over and over again. The bottle wobbled on the concrete, slowing down over time. The sound of the glass rattling filled the deck area. _Oh God, it's stopping in my direction_, I thought again but in a much louder voice. I clamped my eyes shut, even though I was still smiling. I think I was too afraid to think about doing anything else. And it stopped spinning. The rattling of the class was silenced. All of a sudden, everyone broke into a fit of cheers. I opened my eyes, and the bottle was pointing in my general direction, although it missed me by an inch. And who did it land on?

I looked to my left, and I couldn't help but scream and laugh and jump up and down at the same time. It was almost too perfect. Like it was fate, or just really good timing and luck.

It landed on Darren.

In the midst of all of the excitement and cheering, my eyes caught Cory's. Now, I don't know how long he was looking at me, or why he was looking at me instead of Darren, but I wasn't minding it all too much. When our eyes met, I stopped laughing, and I'm not all too sure why I did. I just know that I was smiling back at him, and that everything seemed to go quiet, even though I could see Darren taking off his shirt in the corner of my eye. It was an eerie still moment that seemed to catch us. And maybe I'm crazy, and maybe he could have been looking at Darren when it seemed that he was looking right at me, and maybe I just had clogged ears from all of the loud noises, but I swear it was our small little moment.

Jenna came up from behind me and grabbed my shoulders, using me as a shelf to lean on as she laughed. I could smell the alcohol on her breath. I broke my stare with Cory to pay attention to Jenna, who was cheering Darren on.

"Oh my God!" Jenna screamed (and slurred at the same time, and yes, that's possible) as Darren proudly took off his pants shamelessly, not ashamed of hiding himself or shielding his goods from our sight. "He's naked!"

I covered my mouth in shock as he jumped into the pool alongside Chris, and I could tell Chris was having a moment. All of the blood had rushed into his face in pure embarrassment. Darren swam towards Chris, and Chris swam away quickly. This quickly led to a cat and mouse game that had us all bent over laughing, because of Chris' priceless face, like Darren was a hungry cat and Chris was a scared little baby mouse.

"I can't breathe," Heather laughed as she turned around and made her way to a chair. "I cannot breathe right now!"

"I've seen too much," Kevin said as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"Who's next?" Mark asked with a devilish grin as he picked up the bottle. "Don't worry, no more skinny dipping. Just good, old-fashioned, truth or dare." God, anything that man said could be made into something very sexual. And while I wasn't attracted to Mark, I'd still tap it.

"I'm in," I smirked as I took Jenna by the hand. We both walked over to Mark. "We're both in," I clarified, speaking for Jenna.

"Me too," Cory smirked as he walked over to Mark. _Score_.

A mix of _me_ _too_'s, _sure_'s, and _okay_'s were heard among the group. While Darren and Chris played in the pool, and Heather took a break on the chair, the game resumed with the rest of the group. Mark spun the bottle quickly, and just like before, the glass rattled on the concrete. And when it landed, wouldn't you know, it landed on me. It was my turn. I had to really buck up and do this, even if it meant that Mark would go back on his word and send me skinny-dipping into the pool.

"Truth or dare?" Mark asked, and everyone's eyes were on me, still smiling and chuckling about Chris and Darren.

I had to stick to my guns and do what I said I was going to do. "Dare," I replied, prepared to do anything Mark asked of me, whether I liked it or not.

He laughed in a deep growl, looking around at the guys before looking back at me. Shit. "Okay, Lea. Give one of the guys a lap dance."

I wanted to die. Literally die. How was I supposed to choose a guy? If I picked Cory, EVERYONE would have it out for me. And how could I choose between the guys, Kevin, Chord, Harry, and Mark, because Chris and Darren were in the pool? This dare was a set-up for problems! I had to do something about this, and quick. In a very complaining-toned voice, I protested. "You need to be more specific!"

"Fine," Mark shrugged with a cocky smile. "Give me a lap dance."

Not knowing exactly where he was going with it, I decided I just had to make the best of it. I stood up and dragged a chair to the middle of the group, making Mark and I the center of attention. "To any song of my choosing?" I asked as I plugged my iPhone in to the speaker system that supplied the deck area with music.

"Whatever you want," he replied as he took his position.

Frantically, I scrolled through my artists, bypassing over Broadway soundtracks and anything embarrassing. What do you even look for in a good lap dance song? Instead of going on a sensual sex-filled song, I decided on dabbling in fun songs that just wanted to get you moving. Quickly, I selected "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls and cranked the volume all the way up. The beats started to come through the speakers and everyone started to cheer and root me on. I took my hair out of the clip that held it back and tousled it with both of my hands, picking it up a little bit and giving it some life. I didn't have high heels on, only flip flops, so my hooker strut didn't look as cool as I wanted it to look as I made my way towards Mark. He sat in his chair, proud of himself that he selfishly took the lap dance receiver position, with his smirky little smile placed on his lips. He looked excited, and I was just trying to look as sexy as possible in white capri sweatpants and a black ribbed fitted tank top, the outfit I always seemed to resort to when I was relaxing.

I made my way towards Mark, smirking at him as I approached him and placed my hands on his shoulders. I started to gyrate my hips, flip my hair, run my hands down his perfectly chiseled abs, and slide up and down between his legs, all while the song was playing in the background. I knew that I was getting cheers and catcalls from my friends, and I knew that I was supposed to be focusing all of my attention on Mark, but I kept twirling around and moving my head from side to side to see Cory's reaction. On the times that I caught his expressions, he once looked a bit shocked, and then surprised, and then I just saw him keep taking big gulps of his beer from his token red party cup. As I continued with the lap dance, I tried to focus in on his eyes, to see if I could get that connection back with him, but whenever our eyes met, he looked away again quickly, as if he were embarrassed to look at me.

I don't think I was dancing for more than thirty seconds before I decided that enough was enough. To signal that I was done, over, tapped out, I laughed and just gave Mark a hug before accepting applause and tips from Naya and Amber, single dollars that were stuffed into the top of my pants.

"My turn to spin!" I yelled out as I took the bottle.

I looked over at Cory, and he gave me a small half-hearted smile, as if he was unsure of what to do when he looked at me. I couldn't help but just to feel guilty. I pressed my lips together in a small smile back at him as I spun the bottle, not really caring where it ended up or who it was pointing at when it stopped.

I felt like I had crossed a line we never set up, and all I wanted to do was hide. The bottle finished spinning and it was pointing to Amber. She selected truth, and I asked her what she would do if she only had 24 hours left to live. I knew she answered, but I wasn't really listening like I knew I should have. After Amber finished answering, she took the bottle and spun it, and I politely excused myself from the group.

I headed inside, hoping that no one was following me. With my head down low, I knew exactly what I needed – a shot and some alone time.

Someone else didn't get that message.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

I don't know why I felt so strange about the whole lap dance thing. I mean, it was fun, my friends were having a good time, and I was grinding on the man that people would do anything they were asked just to meet him for a few moments. And it wasn't like I had a boyfriend at home to feel guilty about. There was nothing holding me back, seemingly. But still, why did it feel like I was doing something wrong.

Maybe it was just the look on Cory's face whenever I saw him. I wanted my dance to get him going, to make him look at me with eyes that practically undressed me… but was that what I really wanted out of him? In my weird little twisted way, I wanted to be with Cory, get married to him, have all of his kids, and live a very happy life together. I didn't want him to see me as this girl who would grind up on anyone at the drop of the hat… or ask of a question. Really, maybe it was just some weird guilt creeping up on me. Guilt that I had never felt before, because we had simply never done anything like this before.

I had walked into the house to get away from everything when I heard footsteps behind me. I didn't want to turn around, because I wasn't sure what I would be confronted with. So, instead, I went straight for the collection of liquor bottles on the coffee table and I grabbed the first thing in my reach, raspberry vodka. I unscrewed the cap, and instead of looking for a shot glass or another cup like a regular and normal person, I took a shot straight from the bottle.

"What do you think your doing?" Dianna asked.

I spun around quickly, wiping the corners of my mouth with the back of my hand. "Nothing" I replied as I extended my arm. "Want some?" I asked, offering her the bottle.

She shook her head. "Want to talk about it?" she asked, nodding her head towards her bedroom.

I felt so bad that I just couldn't say no. I had to get this all out of my system, and maybe the alcohol along with it. I put the bottle of vodka down on the coffee table and screwed the lid back on top. "Okay," I muttered simply before we walked back to her bedroom.

And as we walked to her bedroom, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Darren and Chris toweling off and the rest of the group getting up from the floor, meaning that they were going to be coming back in at any moment.

Dianna led me to her bedroom, and it was actually adorable, and very different from the room that Cory and I shared. Dianna and Jenna shared the bedroom that featured two twin-sized beds with matching room furniture. Pink and purple sheets lined the beds, and a television sat on top of their dresser. Their small suitcases were both neatly unpacked and tucked away in the corner. This was clearly the room that was meant for the children staying at the house, and I give them credit for making the room look like it was suited for adults. She shut the door behind us, and I sat down on the corner of one of the beds.

"How awkward was that for you guys?" I asked as I watched Dianna sit down across from me. For drinking all day, she looked really sober to me.

She let out a heavy sigh. "Honestly, not awkward at all, since no one really knows how in love with Cory you are," she replied, which made me feel slightly more comfortable. "It got awkward when you left." And that was quick. I'm uncomfortable again.

"I didn't mean to leave and ruin the mood," I admitted. "The longer I sat there, the worse I felt. I should have just given Cory the lap dance when I still had the option of picking any guy I wanted. I'm pretty sure I would have been inside for a completely different reason then."

"For a cold shower?" Dianna asked, her lips curling up into a sweet smile.

I giggled, because she was so right. I would have been uncontrollable. "How did you know?"

"Can I tell you something?" she asked as she leaned across the space between the beds to close the gap. Her voice got quieter. "You have to keep it a secret."

I nodded quickly. This was going to be good… really good. "What is it?" I asked as I leaned in closer to her.

"I was watching Cory's reaction the whole time," she whispered.

Oh God, oh God, oh God! Why was she watching him, first of all, and second of all, why is she telling me this so quietly? I anticipated more from her, raising my eyebrows in surprise as I waited impatiently. "Well?"

She chuckled before replying. "I'm pretty sure he was into it. He was so focused on you and your body, it was actually kind of cute."

Cory Monteith was into my lap dance. He was into my body. HE WAS INTO MY LAP DANCE. Was this real life?

"Did anyone else notice his reactions? What were they like?" I asked quickly, but still in a whisper.

"I don't think anyone else did," she replied. "And I don't know how to explain them, it's tough."

"Show me!" I begged, desperate to know.

She shrugged before nodding. "Okay, so first, his eyes got all wide like this," she said as she widened her eyes and gave a small, tight-lipped smile. She didn't exactly look like Cory, but I gave her credit for trying. "And then there was this one," she continued, imitating Cory's 'hide a smile in your cup' face by drinking out of an imaginary cup with a bigger smile. "Oh! And then there was the awkward eye contact avoidance look," she explained, as she lowered her head and looked into my eyes, and looked away again, and she repeated this a whole bunch of times until I slapped her on the arm.

"What was that look at the very end after I finished my dance when I sat down?" I asked, hoping she knew the one I was talking about.

"You mean this one?" she asked as she gave me a small, half-hearted smile, almost exactly the one Cory gave me. I nodded quickly. "Well, that one, I'm pretty sure he wet his boxers, and that was his 'please forgive me for my mess' face."

I have to admit, Dianna was making me feel so much better. I just hoped that everything she was saying was the truth, and that she wasn't misinterpreting all of Cory's reaction faces. "So what should I do now? Go back out there and pretend like everything is fine and that I just came in here for another drink, or should I just get a new start in the morning?"

Dianna looked towards the clock. "It's almost three in the morning, and we've been drinking the entire day. I'm pretty sure everyone is going to start heading off to bed sometime soon. I mean, I'm dying for my pajamas, but I didn't want to be the first one to put them on."

I had to smirk. She was right. It was late, we were all blasted off of our asses, and it was just a long day that was filled with lots of traveling and excitement. Hard to believe that I was still home that morning and at how much had happened over just a period of about twelve hours. "Want me to be the first one to throw in the towel?"

"It'd be great," Dianna laughed as she got up off of the corner of her bed and gave me a hug. I wrapped my arms around her petite little frame. "Get some rest," she whispered in my ear. "Don't keep Cory up all night."

"I'll try my best." I pulled myself up from the corner of the other bed and walked over to the door. I took a short breath before turning the handle and leaving the bedroom, not really sure of what I would be walking into. I just knew that I wanted to get some sleep.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

After leaving Dianna and Jenna's bedroom, I went straight downstairs to my bedroom… well, mine and Cory's bedroom. I was so ready to just lie down and finish this day. I padded into our bedroom and walked right over to the suitcase. At this point, I had already worn three outfits for the day, and a laundry pile was slowly starting to build. Looked like I knew what I was doing the next day. I bent down and rummaged through my clothes for pajamas, which was simply a pair of grey workout shorts and an old t-shirt that had seen better days. I wasn't exactly packing pajamas to look sexy in – I wouldn't have picked such a ratty looking t-shirt if I knew I would be sleeping next to Cory for a week.

I took my clothes into the bathroom and pushed the door closed. I quickly changed out of my capris and tank and into my pajamas. Right after I changed, I completed the rest of my nighttime routine. Potty break, brush teeth, and cleanse and moisturize face. It didn't take long, but it was always important to me to follow my routine.

I left the bathroom and entered the bedroom once again, and it was empty. Cory must have still been either upstairs or outside. I couldn't help but let out a sigh as I tossed my clothes on top of my growing laundry pile. Carefully and neatly, I pulled down the layers of blankets and comforters that lined our bed, and I placed our decorative pillows on the floor off to the side. The ruffles and tulle on the pillows would have been way too tough to sleep on, and I wasn't exactly sure how Cory felt about having a big fluffy pillow placed under his head, although I did know that boy could fall asleep anywhere. Once he fell asleep in the little bed in his "bedroom" on the set when they were setting the cameras up before his scene. Lord, I hoped he wasn't sleeping upstairs somewhere.

The bed was ready to be slept in. I drew the curtains closed to make sure that the morning sunrise wouldn't come in and wake us up. I lowered our nightstand lamps to the dim setting so Cory wouldn't come in and turn on the big light to get ready for bed. Really, I did everything that I could do to prepare the room for the first night we would be spending the night together, just short of lighting mood candles and playing a Marvin Gaye playlist.

I pulled the blankets back on my side of the bed and carefully lay down, being mindful not to wrinkle the sheets or take the entire blanket from his side of the bed. Slowly, I rested my head on the pillow and adjusted my curly hair so that it looked like my hair was spontaneously tousled on my pillow. I pulled the blankets over my legs and to just about my stomach, and I flattened it out with the palms of my hands. Finally, I placed my hands at my side "casually", as if no thought was given to my sleep position and it was if I was like an angel sleeping on a large fluffy cloud in the sky. Shit, if Cory only knew how much went into this whole scene.

I just lay there and waited. I didn't want to close my eyes; I wasn't exactly sure of what I looked like when I actually slept, and what if Cory walked in when my mouth was wide open with a large drool line coming out of the corner of my mouth and my legs and arms were spread into the starfish position, taking over the entire bed? That's not a good look! I couldn't take that chance. Not on the first night, at least! I wasn't even sure what to think about as I waited. Nothing too boring, because then I'd fall asleep. But anything too exciting, and I'd probably keep myself awake long after Cory came to bed. This was ridiculous.

I don't think I waited for longer than ten minutes before I heard heavy footsteps clomp down the stairs. My heart started to beat the way Cory pounded on his kick drum, and I could immediately feel my palms become sweaty. I closed my eyes in a panic and made my best sleep-breathing sounds. Don't know if you know this or anything, but I'm pretty good at acting.

The loud footsteps were replaced by the sound of light steps being taken on the cream-colored carpeting of the bedroom. He could tell that I was "sleeping" and I give him credit for trying his best to be quiet. I could hear the sound of his clothes being tossed on the floor and the sound of the elastic band of his pajama pants being snapped around his stomach. Soon after, I could hear him walk around to my side of the bed. I laid extra still, kept my eyes closed, and tried to regulate my breathing as much as possible, even though it felt like my heart was going to beat out of its chest. For a few moments, I couldn't tell what he was doing. I wanted to open up my eyes and look up at him, but that would defeat the purpose of this whole thing. And suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my forehead. Oh my God. He pushed a piece of my hair (that I had placed there, mind you) off of my head and placed it with all of the other curls and waves of my hair. I wanted to just open my eyes and smile at him, but I had to wait, even if it was just a few more moments. After he moved the piece of hair off of my head, he shut off of the lamp on my nightstand and retreated back over to his side of the bed. As soon as I heard him walk away from me, I opened my eyes slightly, looking into the dark room.

He pulled his side of the blanket back and got into bed. The way his body sunk into the bed and the way he tugged the blanket up and over his body could have easily woken me up if I was asleep. The boy who tiptoed his way around the room made an awful lot of movement in the bed. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Time to act.

I took a deep breath and moved my head slightly, and made a small tiny tired groan. I looked in his direction and gave him a small little smirk. "You okay?" I asked him in a small, tired, convincing voice.

He nodded as he looked back towards me. Even though I closed the curtains, enough light came from the porch outside that I could still see his face. "Did I wake you up?" he replied with another question.

"A little," I lied, adding a small giggle. "It's okay, though. It's a tiny bed."

"It is," he agreed. "But it's the perfect size for the two of us. Not too big, not too small. What would we do with all of that extra space?"

I chuckled as I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "I'm afraid I'm going to kick you in my sleep."

He shook his head. "I won't feel it."

"What if I accidentally punch you in your nose?" I joked.

He laughed softly before letting out a small, adorable yawn that made me want to melt. "I've never had a girl punch me in my sleep before. But if you happen to be the first, I'll let you know if I feel it or not."

"Sounds good to me," I smirked.

And then we both got quiet. We just kept looking at each other. And it wasn't like that kind of quiet that you become as a signal that you want the other person to stop talking so you can get some sleep. It was that kind of quiet that you wanted to use to spill your heart and feelings out to someone, but you just knew you couldn't do it yet. It was the most painful kind of quiet I had ever felt. There was just so much building up for me, and there was so much that I wanted to do, like just leaning a few inches across my pillow and giving him a kiss. Something as simple as that. And through all of this, I wondered what was going through his head. After all, he was just as quiet as I was. And then I asked the question that no girl should ever ask a guy.

"What are you thinking about right now?" I asked. I really think it was the alcohol talking on that one.

He smirked, and I almost melted. "I don't know. What are you thinking about?" he responded.

"I asked you first."

He looked at me, and then smiled. "Your lap dance."

At this point, I wanted to rip off my clothes and hop on top of him. Somehow, I found the strength to hold it together, and to keep it all on. "Really?" I asked with a big smile. "What about it?"

"Everything," he replied, and his voice was getting even quieter than it was earlier, and I could tell he was starting to shy away. "Instant hard on," he joked. That was our little inside joke that ran throughout our entire friendship, and just one of our many little secret things that we shared together.

I couldn't help but close my eyes and bury my head in the space between our two pillows. My face was burning up, and as dark as it was in the room, I was pretty sure Cory could see how much I was blushing. "Stop it," I said into the pillows with a laugh.

"What?" he asked as he touched my hair again. What was he doing to me? I moved my head up and looked at him. And as I held my head up and looked at him, he continued to touch my hair, and he moved his fingers against the variety of the waves and curls. "I couldn't help myself."

The way he was touching my hair, it was like he was into me. You usually don't run your fingers through a friend's hair like this. And I wasn't exactly pushing him away. It felt so good to have the guy that I was in love with pay this kind of attention to me that wasn't scripted or being filmed to be edited and shown on television. It all felt very real, and it spooked me to think that what he might be feeling was real. Or, there was a very good possibility he was drunk. I like to hope that the feelings were real, though.

After a while, he pulled his hand back from my hair. He let out a small breath before speaking. "We should get some sleep," he finally said. "I have a feeling we're going to be partying even harder on our first full day together."

It was true, and he was right. Knowing all of us, I wouldn't be surprised if we all had mimosas as soon as we rolled out of bed and shots of whisky with our pancakes. "Okay," I said, caving in. "Sleep well."

"Good night," Cory smirked.

We kept our eyes on each other as I rested my head down on my pillow. I'm not sure who shut their eyes first, but all I knew was that I fell asleep happier than I had in a very long while.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Slowly, I awoke to the new day. I noticed that the sun was pouring in through the windows as I blinked my eyes open, and the door to the bathroom was closed. Oh my God, he was awake. I quickly sat up in bed and patted my hair, and it _felt_ like a hot mess. I couldn't even imagine what it looked like! I ran my hands over my face as I yawned, and sure enough, I felt a small rough line right next to the side of my mouth. Shit. That would be a dried drool line. I looked to the right of me, and sure enough, the bed was empty. Cory must have seen me like this. Oh my God, he saw me look like a hot pile of mess in my sleep!

As I sat up in bed and wallowed in the terror that I must have looked like, I heard the shower turn on, before two quick swishes of the shower curtain. Okay, I had at least ten minutes to get out of bed, run up to a bathroom upstairs, and fix myself up before I saw him. Quickly, I pulled whatever was left of the covers off of me (apparently, I move around a lot on my sleep, which is why the blankets were practically around my knees). Pajamas looked good enough until after I took a shower, so I just grabbed a elastic band and tied my hair up into a high ponytail. I quickly shuffled out of the bedroom and up the stairs. The house was still eerily quiet – and I realized I had no idea what time it was. As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I leaned into the kitchen to check the time on the oven, and it was surprisingly early. 9:43. What the hell was Cory even doing awake that early, and besides, even if he was early to rise, why would he open those curtains to wake me from my sleep? Damn boys.

"What are you doing up?" Heather asked from the dining room table, eating a bowl of cereal. And quite honestly, she scared the hell out of me. I had no idea anyone else was awake.

I gasped as I turned to look at her, and I placed my hand over my thumping heart. "You scared me!" I said with a small laugh as I tried to catch my breath.

"Sorry," she apologized with a smile. "I'm always up early working out, you know this."

"I do," I admitted as I walked over to her. "These are things I should know. What are you eating?"

She chewed her cereal as she pointed to the bowl with her spoon. As soon as she swallowed her mouthful, she looked up at me. "Corn flakes. It was the only cereal that they have, and I didn't feel like making anything else."

"Want me to make pancakes?" I asked, knowing she wasn't a big cereal person. "I don't know if we have chocolate chips, but we have blueberries."

"Oh my God, will you please?" she asked quickly, as she dropped her spoon into the bowl and pushed it away from her. "This is like eating cardboard."

I couldn't help but laugh as I nodded. "Give me a minute, I just want to fix my hair." I walked out of the dining room quickly and I entered the bathroom that was just off the hallway. As soon as I turned on the light and saw my face, I wanted to die. I still had makeup from the day before caked under my eyes and the dried line of drool crusted over white. Immediately, I turned on the water and cleaned off my face. It wasn't easy, and it took a while, but it had to be done. I am so not a cute sleeper, and I'm apparently an even uglier sleeper when I'm away from home. I really had to pull myself together, or just figure out a better way of sleeping. Finally, when I figured I looked good enough, I emerged from the bathroom and made my way back into the kitchen.

Heather was already standing by the counter, gathering the ingredients for our blueberry pancakes. I loved making food from scratch, and my pancake recipe had been passed down to me from my grandmother, the greatest cook that ever lived. Really, look it up. She's amazing. Heather and I prepared the pancake batter over simple conversation. I always loved talking to Heather – she always knows the right things to say and she can make me laugh out loud with just a small, simple joke. I swear, if she was taken completely seriously, she could write an amazing book that would top all of the best-sellers lists. Her stories and anecdotes about life are really original and amusing. Remind me to tell you about some of them one of these days.

"They already smell amazing," Heather remarked as she poured the batter into the buttered frying pan. "Give me a spoon so I can just eat them like this?"

"You better share," I giggled as I reached up and grabbed two plates out of the cabinet. "Can you handle flipping them?"

"Yep," she responded as she watched the pancake batter bubbling in the pan. While she was watching them, I set the table for the two of us. Plates, forks and knives, and mugs for our coffee. I went back into the kitchen to brew a quick pot of coffee, and as Heather flipped the first pancake, I could hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

"You cooking?" Cory asked, and the two of us turned around to look at him.

I couldn't help but smile and nod my head. "Yeah, blueberry pancakes. You want any?"

He shrugged his shoulders as he walked into the kitchen and looked into the pan. "Are they poisoned?"

Heather shot a quick look my way. "Shit, he's onto us. Want to make a fresh batch?"

I nodded my head and gave her a disappointed look. "Yeah, toss them out."

And in a note of comedic genius, Heather took the pan off of the flame and walked over to the garbage pail. She opened it and held the pan over the bag. "I'll take the risk!" Cory pleaded as he lunged over to Heather and took the pan from her hands, saving the pancakes from a dark and smelly final resting place.

We all laughed as Cory returned the pan to the flame on the stove. "They look amazing," he remarked as he walked away from the stove and got a plate out of the cabinet. "I assume you'll both be cooking lunch and dinner as well? Are you taking orders? Because if you are, I'd like a turkey dinner with all the fixings, homemade ice cream, and apple pie."

"We'll get right on that," Heather nodded as she took the pancakes out of the pan and put it on a large serving plate. We made several more batches of pancakes while Cory poured the coffee into the mugs and doctored them up with soy milk and raw sugar.

Once we finished preparing our breakfast, the three of us sat down at the dining room table and ate our pancakes. Cory wolfed them down in a hungry fury while Heather and I ate ours at a normal human pace. The house was still eerily quiet as everyone else slept, and I was surprised that the smell of our pancakes and coffee didn't wake people.

Heather finished eating first, as she claimed that she was full after two pancakes and half a cup of coffee. She cleared her setting and went off to shower while Cory and I finished eating.

"How did you sleep?" I asked before taking a sip of my coffee.

"Like a baby," he smirked as he took a bite of his breakfast. "I don't even remember falling asleep."

I shook my head. "Me either," I agreed. "It was super comfortable."

"I could tell you were," Cory laughed. "When I woke up, your hand was over my stomach and your leg was hanging off the bed. Clearly you felt you needed to stretch out."

I could feel my face instantly burn up. I put my mug down and covered my eyes. I was beyond embarrassed. "I'm so sorry," I apologized. "I didn't know."

"It's okay," he smiled. "It was kind of cute. You looked like a baby panda."

I moved my hands away from my eyes and squinted at him. I wasn't sure if that was necessarily a good thing or not. "I hope that's not an insult."

He laughed as he had another forkful of pancakes. "No, no, it was cute, I'm telling you. Kind of like I wanted to put you in a zoo so other people could see how cute it was."

"God, you have a way with words," I laughed as I took another sip of coffee. I was embarrassed, but at least he knew how to make me feel better about it.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked me as he took his last bite of pancakes. His plate was clean, and his coffee mug was nearly empty.

I looked at him quizzically. Why was he asking me this when we had a house full of our friends? Instead of overanalyzing it, I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. There was a pile of laundry I wanted to do quick, but other than that, I didn't have any other plans. Why, what are you thinking?"

Cory paused as he looked around the empty dining room, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was about to say. "I have to run a few errands. Go food shopping, hit up the liquor store, and maybe sightsee a little bit. Basically, the way I see it, the pool, the hot tub, the alcohol, and the people will be here the entire week. I've never been to La Jolla before, so I want to check it all out. Would you like to come with me?"

"Yes," I blurted out, really without thinking. I probably even said that too quickly. Can you blame me? I was excited.

"Okay," he answered with a smile. "Maybe you want to head out of here around eleven? I have a feeling a lot of these guys will still be asleep, so we'll be getting back just when all the action is starting."

I looked back at the clock, and it was now a quarter after ten. Shit, I had to get ready quick. "I'll be ready to go," I lied. "Do you mind cleaning up while I head into the shower?"

He shook his head. "No problem. Go get started, I'll be around."

I must have been beaming at this point. "You're the best," I squealed as I got up from the table and left the dining room as calmly as I could. "I'll be ready in a few," I told him as I left the room. As soon as I reached the staircase, I bolted down the stairs and into the bedroom. I was sure smoke was coming off of my heels. I might have only have been awake for a half hour, but I had a feeling that today was going to be a great day.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Well, I should have figured that going anywhere with my television boyfriend would lead to some rumors and gossip and some not-so-sneaky cell phone picture shots. As soon as Cory and I arrived at the supermarket to stock up on beer and snacks for the house, we were stopped by several people for pictures and to answer questions about why we were together and if we were dating, and we could hear countless amounts of people whispering behind our backs or as we passed them. It was kind of cute at first, that people noticed us and all, but then after a while, it just got irritating. I could tell that Cory was getting uncomfortable, and I felt bad because he just wanted to see the town and explore a little bit. I wondered if he would be getting this kind of attention if I wasn't there with him. I'm not saying that I was the reason why all eyes were on us, but when people put the two of us together and saw us food shopping, they began to think and suspect.

"We should head out of here soon," I remarked as I looked up at him as he was pulling a case of soda cans off of the top shelf in the beverages aisle. I tend to forget how tall he really is.

"I know," he shrugged as he tossed the case into the cart alongside the beer and a few bags of chips and pretzels. "We're almost done."

We weren't in the store much longer. After putting a few more miscellaneous items in the cart, we paid for our stuff and quickly left. We piled the stuff into the back of Cory's truck and quickly left the parking lot. I kept looking over at him, noticing that he didn't really look happy. "Knock knock," I asked, hoping to get a smile out of him.

And I got it rather quickly. He smirked and replied, "Who's there?"

"Cows go."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Cows go who?"

I laughed at him and playfully hit him on the arm. "No, silly, cows go moo!"

"Oh my God," he muttered before letting out a loud, bellowing laugh. "That was so freaking stupid."

"You loved it," I smirked and I looked back at the road. "Where are we going?" I asked, noticing the beautiful scenic route he was taking. The sun was as bright as I've ever seen it, making the sky as blue as it can possibly get.

"Next on the list is liquor store. I was reading about this great little place that overlooks the water, and if you want, you can buy a bottle of wine or something and then drink it on their deck that overlooks the ocean."

I had to admit, I was impressed. For someone who wanted to just run errands, this was a pretty nice stop on our list of things to do. "It's still before noon," I replied, looking at the clock.

"Did you just think we're popping open a bottle of wine before lunch?" he asked with a smile, looking over at me. "Someone's a budding alcoholic."

"What? No!" I stammered, hoping he didn't catch my wishful thinking. "I was just asking a question, Mr. Monteith!"

He just nodded his head with a small smile. We weren't driving for much longer before he turned into the parking lot of the store. We both hopped out and headed inside the store.

Through all of this shopping and spending casual time together, I realized how much this confirmed what I had wanted all along. I had always wanted to have something like this with Cory; doing everyday things such as shopping is plain and ordinary, but when you do it with someone you are into, it just makes it so much more special and fun, even if you're not necessarily speaking to each other. It just felt so nice to be with him away from the group. I don't know, it's just so hard to explain. I don't even understand if anyone will ever understand what I mean or how I feel. I guess, if I had to sum it up, it just felt right. This was something that I hadn't ever felt with a boyfriend or anyone else that I was interested in, and I knew that there was something special between Cory and I. I just hoped that he had some sort of feeling back towards me. Honestly, Id be crushed if he didn't.

The two of us spent longer in the liquor store longer than we had anticipated. We perused the aisles and examined different labels and bottles, and we shared some stories that were related to the bottles that we were looking at. Like, for example, the last time I had drank Patron, I had a large glass of it at a pool party and I was hung over for nearly two days straight. I also learned that the last time Cory drank a shot of whipped cream vodka, he thought it was a good idea to mix it with Cool-Whip, and when he drank it, the Cool-Whip had curdled, and he ended up throwing up that night's dinner. We didn't end up buying much – just a few bottles of different flavored vodkas, a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of Malibu for me and the girls, and a few different bottles of wine to drink with dinner. The bill was pretty steep, but Cory paid it without a bat of an eye. Glee pays well.

"Where do you want to go now?" Cory asked me after he started the ignition in the truck after we left the store.

I shrugged my shoulders. I really had no idea where we could go; it wasn't like I knew the area. I hadn't ever been before either. I just knew it was a city by the water, and that it was one of the most beautiful places in the country, but it didn't mean that I knew any tourist locations. And besides, I didn't think tourist locations were the best choice for us. "I don't know," I finally replied, giving up.

"I'd say the beach, but I think all of us should hit up the beach tonight after dinner," he suggested.

"That's a good idea," I smiled. "Maybe build a bonfire?"

He looked over at me with wide eyes. Ding! Point for me! "Great idea," he whispered with a smile. "How do you start one? Do we have a shovel? Or what about firewood? We have matches back at the house, right?"

"Okay, this is not my forte. The girls and I will get the marshmallows together, you guys figure out how to light the thing."

"Deal," he nodded. "Well, then do you want to get back to the house so we can plan this whole thing out?"

"Alright," I responded with a nod of the head. "While you and the guys figure this whole thing out, I'll be in the pool with the girls."

"That's convenient," he chuckled as we pulled out of the parking lot and headed back towards the house. "Will you be sipping on your fresh pack on Coronas while you're at it?"

"You know it, toots," I smiled as I looked out the window as we began to speed down the road.

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You know, I don't think there is anything better than laying poolside in the warm sunshine, tanning and just relaxing. This entire year has been one big crazy whirlwind, and this was the perfect break to have before filming for Season 3 began. All of the boys were researching information and planning how they were going to execute their nighttime bonfire at the beach, and I couldn't be happier knowing that all I had to do was provide a few bags of jumbo marshmallows. Although, I did assume that the girls and I would be cooking the dinner and bringing it to the beach while all of the guys were building our large fire pit.

I was the first one by the pool as soon as Cory and I got back from our shopping adventures. I slipped right into my bathing suit and claimed my seat while Cory took a seat on the couch and caught up on his sports highlights shows. And he was right – when we got back, everyone else was just waking up, and they were surprised that Cory and I had made it out and got some shopping done so early in the day. Dianna and Jenna promised me that they would join me by the pool after they ate their breakfast (mind you, it's after noon).

It was really quite relaxing to lie by the pool. My cell phone was turned off and tucked away inside my suitcase, and I didn't bother to bring my laptop. This week, I wanted to be completely disconnected from the world with my friends. And any business calls would be forwarded to my manager, so there would be nothing on my mind except the sun and my friends. I had my giant, oversized floppy hat to shield my face from the sun, and it provided perfect shade for reading. I cracked open my book, 'Water for Elephants', and read all of the pages with great care, immersing myself within the text.

I had read maybe fifty pages or so before the screen door slid open, and Jenna had emerged in her bikini. She took the lounge chair next to me and kicked up her feet before looking my direction. "How are you keeping your eyes open right now?" she asked as she let her head hit the back of the chair. She sunk into the plastic bands of the seat and allowed her body to relax completely.

"I don't know," I responded as I dog-eared the page I was on and closed my book. "I just keep lifting my eyelids after I blink."

"You know what I mean," Jenna groaned. She was clearly hung over.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked, trying to get in a conversation with her before she fell asleep.

Jenna shrugged her shoulders. "Good, I guess. We were all dead asleep until Darren was unloading the dishes from the dishwasher and dropped, like, three of them onto the floor and they all shattered. And really, I couldn't tell if the loud shatter from the sound of the plates falling or the shatter of my mind breaking into a million pieces like little shards of glass was louder. So dehydrated."

I smiled before offering a water bottle that I had brought outside with me. Usually, Jenna refuses acts of kindness and does things herself so she doesn't put other people out of their way. It was one of the things that I had always loved most about her. She was always so humble. But this time, Jenna couldn't have yanked the water bottle out of my hand fast enough. "Thanks," she muttered as she cracked the plastic seal and took a long sip of it. "Coffee wasn't doing me any favors."

"No problem," I responded. "I don't know how I'm not more hung over today. Maybe because I couldn't allow myself to be."

"Maybe because you didn't take a shot of gin to rinse out your mouth after brushing your teeth," Jenna hissed.

"Oh my God! You did that?" I asked her, my jaw nearly hitting the floor. Just the idea of it made me want to vomit.

She didn't reply. I could tell that she just needed some peace and quiet. Lounging by the pool was the best spot in the house for that. The house wasn't ocean-side, but we were still close enough to the water that we could hear the crashing waves of the Pacific on the sand and smell the light sea air. All of the action was in the house right now. Everyone was just beginning to stir. They were all eating their brunches, popping their Advil's to help ease their headaches, and drinking several cups of coffee. All of the guys, except Chris, were probably huddled around the television with Cory, and all of the girls, along with Chris, were probably comparing their bathing suits and doing some laundry. I knew that we had to eventually start planning out a dinner menu, but I had maybe another hour before I had to bring it up to the girls. And again, I would probably have to go to the supermarket to get the jumbo marshmallows for the bonfire. Cory and I had only thought of that idea after we had gone shopping, so I knew that I had to go back and pick up our appropriate supplies. That would also give us a lot more leeway to plan for dinner as well – we weren't restricted to whatever we could find in the refrigerator for the past two days.

As for right now, though, I couldn't think about shopping or dinner or a bonfire. All I had to do was lay by this water and get some much-deserved relaxation.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The girls and I all walked onto the beach around 8 that night. The sun was beginning to descend over the ocean, and the sky was turning mystical colors of gold, pink, purple, and blue. The clouds were sheer and light, and the sound of the crashing waves was overwhelming and beautiful at the same time. And in the distance, we spotted our guys tossing the football around as a bonfire burned brightly.

No, this wasn't the first chapter out of a Nicholas Sparks novel. This was real life.

We all lugged bags of food and snacks in our hands, trudging through the sand to reach the guys. Naya, Heather, and I borrowed Cory's truck and went food shopping, and we had bought maybe a few too many things. We had five different salads, grilled chicken, tofu dogs, cheeseburgers and their respective toppings, an assortment of rolls and bagels with accompanying spreads, and pounds of cold cuts and cheeses for sandwiches. We had also purchased four or five large bags of jumbo marshmallows and the reusable plastic marshmallow roasting sticks, so we didn't have to scour the beach for gross driftwood that washed ashore.

"I see them," Dianna remarked with a smile as she pointed towards the group.

My hands were heavy with large bags of food. "You'd think they'd see us and offer to help." I swear, the color of my palms was the pinkest of paint selections for a newborn baby girl's bedroom. I could hear Jenna and Amber struggling behind me as they carried the large cooler filled with ice and beers. Naya and Heather carried the other cooler, filled with bottles of wine and other chilled beverages.

"Such boys," Ashley groaned, her arms weighed down by large containers of pasta and potato salads.

We trudged over to them, and only when a few feet distanced us, they saw us coming. And of course, they dropped everything and ran over to us, coming to our aide. Mark took the bags from my hands, and even though I could see him remove the weight from my palms, I had no feeling in them for a few minutes. It was so bad, I opened the cooler, and instead of grabbing a beer, I dunked my hands into the ice water.

"Hands hurt?" Cory asked as he bent down into the cooler I had my hands shoved in to grab a beer.

"A little bit," I replied sarcastically as I looked up at him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and his shirt was damp. Small grains of sand stuck to his arms and legs. And he had this little smirk on his face like the one that Finn Hudson would give to Rachel Berry. Baby boy looked so cute.

Without saying anything more, he walked away from me as he twisted the cap of the bottle off with the bottom of his shirt. I swear, he just liked to tease and torture me. After a few more moments, I took my hands out of the ice and dried them off on the back of my black shorts. While I had my hands in the frigid water, the guys unpacked the food and set it up on folding tables that they had brought with them. We'd be eating around the fire, but at least we wouldn't be serving the food off of a sand dune.

It didn't take us long to dig in. I filled up my plate quickly with salads and vegetables, and a heaping spoonful of hummus that Dianna had whipped up quickly. All of the guys attacked the hamburgers and sandwich materials, and I think some of them even ate the tofu dogs, thinking that they were real hot dogs. But the girls and I kept it simple and smart, knowing that we would have to still look cute in our bathing suits.

I sat on one out of four logs that surrounded the bonfire, and I stretched out my legs so that my feet would be warmed from the heat coming off of the flames. I ate my salad slowly. Have you ever tried eating a salad with an oil-based dressing on a flimsy paper plate? It's not pretty. You can't just go stabbing around the plate with your fork, because then you'd puncture holes and the dressing and everything would just leak out. You had to poke at the lettuce and mixed greens to coax them onto the fork, almost like it was assuring them that it would be safer in your mouth than on your plate.

I watched Cory as he walked towards me with two loaded plates of food in his hands. I couldn't help but smile as he took a seat near me. He placed his two plates of food down on the sand before retrieving another bottle of beer from the cooler. And after he finally came back, he settled in down the log from me, and began eating. "Everything looks so good," he smiled as he picked up his cheeseburger and took a huge bite. "I think I ate a weird vegan dog thing over at the table because it didn't fit on my two plates, and even that was amazing."

"Thanks," I responded as I ate another forkful of the salad. "And you ate a tofu dog."

"Tofu?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he took another bite of his cheeseburger. "Is that like chickpea stuff, like hummus in a casing?"

He wasn't that far off. It did have chickpeas in it, along with other things. Instead of naming off all of the natural ingredients, I cocked my head to the side and gave him a half nod. "In a sense, yes. But hey, I bought the Canadian brand."

"Well, bonus point for you then," he smiled as he inhaled the last bite of his cheeseburger. "All of us were starving waiting for you girls to get here. I mean, I ate breakfast, but these guys have just had all liquid. Well, I think Chris ate breakfast, but otherwise, none of us."

"It all took a long time to prepare and cook. It wasn't easy getting things together in a kitchen that's not your own. None of us knew where anything was."

"I figured," Cory nodded as he ate a forkful of pasta salad. "Bertha is in good shape?" he asked, referring to the truck.

"She was a good girl," I responded with a small smile. "I think she appreciates a woman's touch sometimes."

Cory laughed, covering his mouth with his hand with the fork in it to hide the mashed up pasta in his mouth. "Yeah, that sounds just like Bertha."

"Why did you name your car Bertha?" I asked as I took a sip of my Corona that I had next to me.

He quickly shrugged his shoulders. "It was the first thing that came to my mind. She was an elegant, large, lady in red," he chuckled, referring to his red Range Rover truck. "Bertha just seemed to fit right." He paused to take another bite of pasta salad. "Did you name your car when you first got her?"

"Of course," I responded, almost before he finished asking the question. "Her name is Eleanor."

"Why Eleanor?"

"The first letter of my license plate is E, and I was listening to the Beatles on my way to the car dealership. I think it was one of those fate things."

"Do you call her Elle for short?" he asked with a small smile.

I couldn't help but smile back as I looked at him. "Close! It's Ellie."

"Do I get half a point for that?"

I nodded. "Yes, but only a half."

"I'll take it."

And then he gave me this smile that was unlike any other smile he had given me before. It was this wide, bright smile that was warm and comforting, and I could tell it was the most genuine and real thing in the world. It was the kind of smile that made me want to scoot across the log and throw my arms around him and hug him for all of eternity, just to feel his body against my body. I mean, if I did it now, we'd both have to put down our plates of food, and I'd be afraid of kicking sand onto his meal, or possibly knocking over his bottle of beer, so I refrained. I just smiled back before I continued eating. I figured that I could at least get rid of the plate, and I'd be one step closer to doing what I wanted to do.

- . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - .

We all sat around the fire. It was nearly midnight, and the sky was pitch black, and we hadn't seen the ocean for hours. None of us could find the moon that night – until we realized that it was the one day of the month that we had the new moon – and then, we really just had to gaze up at the stars. We had blown through the marshmallows pretty quickly. Apparently, five bags of jumbo marshmallows, while sounding like a lot of marshmallows, only really allowed two or three marshmallows per person. So, once we finished all of the marshmallows, we really just resorted to heavy drinking and guitar playing. Mark had brought his guitar down to the beach earlier when they were there to prepare the bonfire, and we all serenaded each other with our favorite songs that we knew by heart, and some songs that we had done on the show.

Cory and I were still sitting apart from each other on the same log for the night, but while Mark took a break from guitar playing to get another drink, Chord, who was sitting between me and Cory, got up to grab another drink with him. Cory looked at me and smirked, and then he scooted his way down the bench towards me, taking over Chord's seat.

Now, normally I would just be happy about this, but tonight, I was thrilled. Cory and I sang multiple duets together, including a little gem titled 'Faithfully' that always seems to bring me close to tears, and we also sang a verse of 'Can't Fight This Feeling' together (well, Cory was really supposed to sing it on his own, but I couldn't help but join in), and then we brought it back old-school and sang the 'Borderline/Open Your Heart' mash-up. I was surprised Mark could pull that one off on the guitar, since it wasn't really all that easy to sing. And while we sang these duets together, we were both connected and intertwined. It was like that tether thing that was happening at the end of Season 2, how Finn said that he felt tethered to Rachel. Maybe Ryan, Brad, and Ian knew something that we didn't know, or something that at least Cory didn't knew. I knew it, though. I've been in love with the boy for two years now. But either way, I just felt that bond, and it was one of the greatest feelings I've ever felt.

Maybe he scooted over towards me because he felt that way too. That tether.

"Hey, stranger," he smiled at me. His elbows rested on his knees and he was leaned over. He held a beer bottle in his hands, and he looked straight into my eyes. "What are you doing over here?"

I shrugged my shoulders and I looked at him with little heart shapes emitting from my eyes, seemingly. "What does it look like I'm doing?" I asked him with a small smile.

"I don't know," he responded. "Sitting there."

"Good observation," I laughed as I took a sip of wine from a red plastic cup. "Now, I should ask you, what are you doing over here?"

"Nothing," he responded before taking a sip of beer. "I missed you."

My heart fluttered in my chest like a butterfly trapped in a cage, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the ill-effects from the wine. "Really," I declared with a smile as I leaned in towards him. "I don't want you to miss me anymore. I'll always be right here." Was that too corny? Shit, I think that was too corny.

"Good," he smiled.

We both looked away from each other when we heard Mark start strumming on the guitar once again. And even though I wasn't looking into Cory's eyes anymore, I couldn't shake the smile from my face. My cheeks were starting to hurt, and my lips were starting to dry, but damn it, I was happy. I looked over towards Dianna, and very subtly, she opened her eyes larger and leaned her head to the left, as if she was signaling to me to lean my head on Cory's shoulder. You know, Dianna isn't one to lead me down the wrong path, and so I figured that now would be as good of a time as any to follow her guide.

As Mark began to strum the first few chords to 'Teenage Dream', which Darren started to sing, I slowly lowered my head towards his shoulder, until I finally felt my head plant firmly on his body. And instead of tensing up like I figured he would since it was unexpected, I felt the arm that I was leaning on extend, and almost right away, I felt his hand on my opposite shoulder.

There we were, in front of all of our friends on the beach in front of a bonfire being serenaded by Mark Salling and Darren Criss, showing a public display of affection for each other. I was smiling more now than I was before, if that is at all possible, and I'm pretty sure everyone else was starting to notice. I wished that I could have given a shit, but I didn't. This is what I had wanted for so long. I wanted a warm embrace from Cory in an incredibly romantic setting under the stars. Yes, it would have been more ideal if we were alone so I could jump his bones and start making out with him, and yeah, it could have been influenced by large amounts of alcohol, but for right now, this was pretty amazing.

"I like the way your hair smells," I heard him whisper into my ear, and it gave me goosebumps on every inch of my body.

I chuckled lightly, looking up towards him in his general direction. "It's the ocean breeze, I think. Kinda made it rough and tangled."

"It's good, though," he reassured me as he pulled me in closer towards him.

Lord, if this was my last moment on this earth, thank you for making it one truly amazing one.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

We didn't get back to the house until around three in the morning. The guys kept feeding the fire, and it took much longer than expected for the fire to die down naturally. I didn't mind, though, since Cory and I stayed in our cuddle position for the majority of the night. I was getting cold anyway, and so I nuzzled into his body for warmth, of course. Wouldn't you do the same?

While the boys worked on putting the fire out in the middle of the night, the girls and I used flashlights to figure out how to pack all of our food back up and get it all back to the house. Really, what we ended up doing, was dumping the ice water out of all of the coolers (there was not one bottle of beer or wine left over), and we just threw all of our shit into the coolers. Whatever food was left over would have to be sorted out in the morning because I would be damned if I would be spending time in the kitchen while I could be spending time in bed with Cory.

As soon as we arrived back at the house, we all said our goodnights and headed straight towards our respective bedrooms. I walked into our bedroom, and then straight into our bathroom, and immediately grabbed the bottle of baby powder off of the counter. I entered the shower and doused my legs and feet with the baby powder to remove all of the annoying sand that didn't want to come off by just rubbing it with my hands.

I don't think I was standing in the shower and dusting off my legs for more than ten seconds before I heard Cory walk into the bedroom. "I'm in here," I called out from the bathroom.

Cory quickly appeared in the doorway, and furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you doing?" he asked as he walked into the bathroom. "Is that my baby powder?"

"Maybe," I quickly replied as I looked down at my feet. "I can't get the sand off, so I had to use baby powder."

"That works?" Cory asked, kicking off his flip flops. And before I knew it, he stepped into the shower and placed his feet next to mine. God, his feet are HUGE. It's like they were meant for a dinosaur, but instead, they were given human qualities and were placed on Cory's legs. "Sprinkle me."

Out of nowhere, I laughed loudly, bending at the waist. The sound of my laugh filled the bathroom, and I'm sure the house, but just hearing Cory utter the words "Sprinkle me" was just completely worth it. That would be a phrase I'd have to keep on reserve for future use.

"What's so funny?" Cory asked as he laughed along with me.

"Sprinkle me," I repeated as I caught my breath. "Oh, that was a good one."

He giggled. "But I'm serious! Sprinkle the powder on my feet, woman!"

"Fine, fine," I obliged as a dusted his legs and feet with baby powder. Like a scene out of a movie, there we were, two grown ass people standing in a shower stall with baby powder on our legs and feet. We could both already start to see grains of sand collect on the stall floor.

"This stuff really works," Cory remarked as he bent down and brushed some of the baby powder and sand off of his knees. "I doubted you, Ms. Michele, but sometimes, you know what you're doing."

"It's okay, you're Canadian, so you wouldn't know."

Cory sucked his teeth and made a grimacing face as he looked up at me. "Burn," he hissed. "Give me that baby powder."

"No!" I squealed as I tried to hide it behind my back, as if he didn't know where I had just put it.

"Give it to me!" he laughed as he lunged towards me and felt around my back as he tried to get his hands on the bottle.

As he was fumbling behind my back, I was able to sneak the bottle of baby powder in front of me, and with one quick jerk of my hand, I shook the baby powder all over the front of his shirt. He stopped fumbling and looked down at his shirt, not quite sure whether to smile and laugh or retaliate some more. "Oh, you've done it now," he grinned evilly as he lunged towards me again. But this time, he was able to get the bottle away from me rather quickly. Oh, shit.

"No, no, no!" I laughed and pleaded at the same time, and I knew that I was absolutely screwed. He held the bottle far above my head, so high up I couldn't reach it if I tried, and he squeezed it. The baby powder fell from the sky like it was snowing, and it had coated both of us. It was in my hair, on my face, and it was already embedded in my clothing. And it had even gotten on Cory, which proved that his master plan had backfired. His brown hair was now snowy white, and his shirt was covered in even more powder than it was before.

He dropped the bottle to the bottom of the shower stall, and it had landed with a thump. We both started laughing as we tried brushing the powder off of our hair and shirts, but it ended up just creating a larger cloud of powder that we couldn't seem to escape. While I was trying to brush the powder off of my arms, I didn't notice that Cory was staring at my face. And when I looked up towards him, our eyes seemed to have connected like someone had connected them with a chain, locked it, and threw away the one key that released the lock. Why did his eyes have to be so deep and beautiful, and why was he always giving me these long, deep, romantic looks, like there was something he was dying to say or do, but just couldn't do it?

Neither of us spoke, but Cory's breathing became heavier. We were just standing there – why was it getting heavier and noticeably louder? I licked my lips, which was a mistake because they were dusted with powder, and now my tongue tasted like chalk. But I didn't really care too much, because slowly, Cory was starting to inch closer to me.

I wasn't quite sure what to do. He was coming closer, and I didn't have much space to back up behind me. I took the one step that I could backwards before my back rested against the tiled walls. So, I just stood there, my back against the wall, as Cory continued to inch closer towards me.

Oh my God, I knew it. He was going to kiss me.

My breathing became labored as he neared me. He placed his hand under my chin and lifted my head up slightly. He lowered his head down near my face. And just before I thought he was finally going to kiss me, he smiled, just centimeters away from my lips.

"You want me to kiss you, don't you?" he whispered flirtatiously.

I wanted to outright scream in his face. Scream, moan, pant, beg, plead… anything to get my message across. But instead, I somehow held it all together and I nodded my head slightly. "Yes," I admitted as I stared deep into his eyes. "I want you to kiss me."

Without saying another word, Cory lowered his head just far enough and placed his lips on mine. Oh God, this was amazing. He kissed me softly and gently, his hand moving from under my chin to the back of my neck. In fact, he actually got a pretty good grip of the roots of my hair, and he was just aggressive enough to send a chill up and down my spine. Our lips moved together as if they've done this all a million times before. Really, Finn and Rachel have kissed a bunch of times, but it was never like this. Finn Hudson had NOTHING on Cory Monteith. No, this was new, and this was fun, and this was exciting. This felt like destiny, as absolutely corny as that sounds.

I don't even know how long we were kissing, but I do know that we were moving around an awful lot, so that must have meant we were going for a while. We started on the back wall of the stall, and then somehow, I was pressed up against the soap dish on the adjacent wall. After I got a soap dish bruise right on my left shoulder blade, I remember taking control and somewhat pushing Cory up against the frosted glass door, where our make-out continued, and then commenced.

We were both quiet for the first few moments after we pulled our lips off of each other's, and I wasn't quite sure what to say. We just really looked at each other, both of our breathing actually being pretty heavy. My hands were rested on his chest, and his arms were wrapped around my petite waist. He spoke first. "That was fun," he admitted with a small smile.

I didn't even know what to respond with, because I just didn't want a response to be too much or too little in the moment. I figured that nodding and smiling would have to suffice, at least for now.

"How are we going to clean all of this powder off?" he asked, looking at my hair and my clothing.

I shrugged before attempting to brush the baby powder off his shirt with my hands. "I was just going to take a shower and then do laundry in the morning, or really whenever I wake up."

"Sounds like a plan," he smirked as he removed his hands from around my waist. "You can take a shower in here. Maybe I'll see if I can get into the shower across the hall in by Harry and Chord."

"Okay," I smiled. I moved away from him so he could step out of the shower stall. Damn, I hated to see him go, but I loved to watch him leave. "I'll see you in bed, then?"

He turned back to me and nodded. "Yeah, in a few minutes."

And just like that, he left the bathroom, and left me in a shower stall covered in baby powder. I stood completely still, completely in shock at the events that just happened. I tried to come to the realization of the events that had just happened by touching my lips. Yep, they were wet.

I just had my very first make-out session with Cory f'ing Monteith, and it was beyond any words that I could use to describe it.


	14. Chapter 13

_A/N: I just wanted to thank you for all of your incredibly wonderful and supportive comments on the story! I've read them over and over again, and they always make me feel so happy and loved. This story has really taken off – and if you liked the last chapter, just wait! :) Again, I'd love to hear what you think of the story, and I'd love to hear from you all personally! Don't be a stranger – add me on Twitter and Tumblr (links in my profile!), or just shoot me a PM! I love making new Glee friends!_

_And if you read the story and don't leave comments, please know that I love and appreciate you too! I stare at the hit counter on the control panel in awe of all of your visits to the story and constant support! You're all the best!_

_LOVE YOU ALL! xoxo Therese_

**Chapter 13**

I awoke from my slumber peacefully and calmly. It was a beautiful day yet again, from what I could tell from the stream of sunlight pouring in through the windows. And as I came to, I realized that something was different. I felt a heavy weight over my stomach, and I moved my hands to make out exactly what it was. My heart leapt and fluttered as I realized it was an arm, and I looked to the left of me. There Cory was, still sound asleep on the bed next to me. His lips were parted slightly, and he was inhaling and exhaling through his mouth. I do remember him coming to bed last night without a shirt on, claiming he forgot to take one to the bathroom with him. I'm not stupid, though – I know a show-off when I see one. And for the record, I wasn't complaining either.

Honestly, I was afraid to move. I didn't want to distract my sleeping beauty by trying to get up out of bed, or even rolling on his side. It was awfully nice to have his arm on me, too. I felt safe and secure, which is always what a girl wants to feel around a boy. So, I decided it was in my best interest to just lie there and wait. Maybe I'd even get a few more minutes of sleep in too. As I lay there quietly, I thought about all of the things that I wanted to get accomplished. Doing the laundry is a necessity, and I felt a kitchen cleaning coming on. I'd probably have to figure out how to clean the sand remnants out of the bottom of the shower, since not all of it was washed down the drain. We didn't have to do any more food shopping, I wasn't going to bother vacuuming, and I decided that the boys would have to figure out the menu for the night, even if that meant take-out.

But, the problem with long nights that include drinking with friends is that you inevitably have to use the bathroom. The longer I lay in bed with Cory, and the longer he pressed down on my stomach, the more I had to pee. I moved my head to look at him, and ever so slowly, I slid my body out from under the sheets, as if I was some kind of snake. His arm gracefully relocated from my body to the bed. Mission accomplished. I got up from the bed and tiptoed into the bathroom, shutting the door quietly behind me.

I wasn't even in the bathroom for two whole minutes before I walked back into the bedroom, and he had started to stir. I stood by the door and I watched him wake up and stretch his arms and legs out, awakening his muscles and getting his blood flowing. His hair was a tousled mess, and his scruffy beard was beginning to thicken. Slowly, he flickered his eyes opened, and I watched him stare at the ceiling as he adjusted to the light of the room. I couldn't be this creeper lurking in the shadows any longer, so I piped up. "Good morning," I said quietly with a smile, careful not to scare him.

He moved his head to look at me, and he smiled as soon as he saw me. I practically fell to the floor. "Morning," he happily groaned.

"Sleep well?" I asked as I padded back over to the bed. I crawled in, and I leaned on my elbows as I hovered over his body. I looked completely plain and unmade, but I felt comfortable.

"Mm-hmm," he moaned as he shifted his body towards me. "My head hurts, though. I think I need a few hours break from drinking."

"Agreed," I replied with a nod of my head. "My body is practically begging for water. I found some aspirin in the medicine cabinet last night, so if you need any, it's on the counter."

Cory nodded before replying simply, "Thanks."

It got awkwardly quiet for a moment. I was dying to bring up what had happened in the shower last night, but I wasn't sure if that act of lust and romance was connected to true feelings, or if it was just the alcohol. Lord, I wished and wanted it to be the true feelings, but I wasn't sure. Really, to get to the bottom of it, I knew I had to ask him. Just put it out there and see what comes of it. Figure out if he really meant what he did or not, because we hadn't spoken about any feelings. It was purely physical. I bucked up, looked him in the eye, and decided that I had to figure this all out, even if the man had only been awake for a minute or two, and he could possibly still be somewhat hungover.

"Cory, about last night…" I started, lowering my voice but still leaning in towards him.

Before I could finish, he interrupted me. "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Oh hell no. No good conversation ever comes out of the prefacing sentence "I wanted to talk to you about that." You might as well just say "Hmm, I'll pass," or "No thanks, wasn't really into it." I swallowed a hard lump that had quickly formed in my throat, and prepared myself for what he was about to say.

"Okay," I muttered.

He let out a deep sigh before speaking. "I had a really good time with you last night. I just want you to know that it wasn't some fluke thing that happened. It's actually been something I've wanted to do now for a while, and I'm glad you gave me the green light."

Um, am I hearing all of this right?

"I want to go back to the beach later, and I want to take you with me. Think we could sneak away from the house for a little bit?" Cory asked me, his lips curled up into a smile.

"Uh, ye – yeah," I stammered, and then I nodded my head quickly. I smiled wide, and I knew that everything was going to be all right. Maybe I wasn't so crazy after all for having these feelings.

"Come here, you have something on your face," Cory said, motioning for me to lean into him.

I leaned in, and just as I did, he moved his face towards mine. Like a scene out of a movie, he kissed me, but it wasn't nearly as soft and as delicate like it was the night before. This one was powerful, and I could tell that it had a soulful meaning, as if I even know what that means. It was good, though, _real good_. In fact, even though the scruffy chin was irritating my face, I didn't even make a sound about it. I could tell that this wasn't something driven by alcohol or the moment – this felt real.

I pulled away from the kiss first, but I rested my forehead against his forehead, and we both had these big bright smiles on our faces. "I have morning breath," I giggled.

"Yeah, you're right. God, you're breath is kicking," Cory replied sarcastically before he gently took me by the shoulders and pushed me off of him. He was able to maneuver me down to the mattress, and now he had full control over me. "Guess I'll just have to stop kissing you then," he toyed as he lowered his head towards my neck, and his hands were now placed on either side of me, as if he was in some modified push-up position. He giggled as he neared my neck with his mouth, and I could feel his warm breath on my skin. I really thought I was going to wet my underpants. No man should be allowed to be this sexy. He nuzzled his head into my neck before running his lips along my skin, and I let out a soft moan. I couldn't have even kept it in for another moment. And as soon as he heard that tiny little moan, he knew he had me. He gave me one small kiss on my neck before he lifted his head and looked at me. "I was thinking maybe we'll head to the beach around 7?"

"What time is it now?" I breathed. I really couldn't produce proper words.

I watched Cory look at the clock at his bedside and he gasped for air before letting out a small laugh. "It's almost two in the afternoon."

"Oh my God," I muttered as I tried to sit up in bed. "How did we sleep so late?"

Cory just shrugged his shoulders as he moved out of the way, which allowed me to get out of bed. "I was comfortable."

"Me too," I admitted before walking into the bathroom to grab a hair tie from the counter. I gathered my hair and tossed it into a high bun. "After I brush my teeth, I'm doing a load of laundry. Want me to throw yours into my mix?" I offered with a small smile.

"No biggie, I'll just do it," Cory smirked before climbing out of bed.

I stood in the bathroom door as I watched him grab a fresh shirt out of his suitcase. He pulled it on over his head, and then he bent down, scooped up our laundry, and carried it out of the bedroom.

I didn't think that a man could be this freaking perfect. Clearly, I was wrong.


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: First, I want to thank you all for your continued support towards the story! It is such a rewarding feeling to know what great supporters I have, and you are all so amazing!**

**This is an incredibly long chapter – and I am SO proud of it! In all, it came out to fourteen pages on Microsoft Word – it was a ton of work, but I have never been so proud of a chapter before! I was able to address so many things and I really got the ball rolling on everything – I just hope you all enjoy it!**

**Please follow me on Twitter and Tumblr (links in my profile!) and don't be shy – PLEASE leave a comment/review and recommend it to your friends!**

**Thanks for being so wonderful! xoxo Therese**

**Chapter 14**

I was really impressed with myself. After everything that happened – the make-out session in the shower, the cuddling and teasing in bed, and Cory stepping up and DOING MY LAUNDRY (really, is Cory a man? Who seriously does this?), I hadn't mentioned a word about anything to anyone. Not even Dianna and Jenna, who I can tell anything and everything to, just because I figured that I didn't want to ruin a good thing until Cory and I really figured out what we both wanted to do with this lusty, romance thing between us. Well, let me rephrase that, I wanted to help Cory figure out what he really wanted to do with the lusty, romance thing between the two of us, because when it comes to me, I knew exactly what I wanted. A wedding at a beautiful vineyard at sunset with a black-tie, classy reception to follow, which would all be maybe two or three years down the line. I had to convince him that that's what he would eventually want as well. Maybe not tonight, but I'd work on it. I might or might not also have the wedding party planned and paired up as well…

So, to get out of the house, Cory and I told everyone that we were going out to scout out restaurants so we could have a large dinner out the next night. It sounded good at the time when Cory and I came up with the excuse, until we realized halfway to the beach that we actually had to go back to the house with an idea on where to go.

I really tried to dress as best for the occasion as possible. I knew we weren't going to the beach to get a tan, so I didn't wear my swimsuit and a cover-up. I also didn't want to be too dressy, so I decided against wearing a fancy dress. I figured, as best as I could, a simple flowing sundress would be best. It was a sage-colored green halter dress that landed just around my knees. Plus, I figured, just look at what Cory is wearing, and work around it. He kept it simple with khaki shorts and a white t-shirt, so I figured I was dressed well enough.

Besides the first few minutes we spent together when we first woke up, we didn't spend much time together during the course of the day. Cory went jogging with Mark, Kevin, Chord, and Harry during the afternoon, and the girls, Darren, Chris, and I hung out around the pool. We were all pretty quiet, as we were all trying to spend the day recovering from the alcohol-filled night. I didn't even drink any real hard liquor – beer and wine are my best companions. But everyone else, well, they were paying their price. Plus, I had my eyes closed as I laid on that deck chair, so people had assumed I was sleeping. Nope, just working on my sun-kissed look while slathered in SPF 50.

"Such a beautiful night," I remarked to Cory as we drove down the one-lane road to get to the beach, which snapped me out of the thoughts of the day and brought me right back to the car. We both had our windows open, and the sea-salt-kissed air flowed throughout the car. I hadn't bothered to try to straighten my hair, since I knew it would frizz right up, so I curled it lightly and sprayed it with practically a half a can of hairspray.

"I know," he agreed. "We've been really lucky with the weather this week. It's been nothing but perfect."

I smiled before looking over at him. "It just knows we're all here. Doesn't want to make itself look bad in front of us or anything."

He giggled before looking quickly over at me. "I'm telling you, if you weren't an actress, you should have looked into the meteorology field."

"I'd good at it, don't you think?" I asked him before I put both of my hands in the air. I pretended to hold a clicker in one hand as I gestured on a pretend map with my other. "Nothing but clear skies here in La Jolla, with the temperature being a comfortable 76 degrees. We have an area of high pressure sitting right over California, which really puts us in a great place for the next few days. No rain anywhere on the map, so you know what that means, get out there and enjoy the night!"

Cory paused before speaking again. "Where's the five day forecast?" he asked with a small smile curled on his lips.

"No, no, that part comes during the next segment. You know how they like to keep you waiting for the next half hour to tell you what it will be like for the upcoming week."

"I should have figured that," Cory laughed as he adjusted his Ray-Ban sunglasses on his face. "See, you really are perfect. You know all the timing and everything."

I looked back out the window, trying my best to hold everything together. I could just joke around with Cory everyday of my life, and just laugh at everything he says. I just don't want to come off as the girl who will laugh at anything, though. I want him to work for my smiles, my chuckles, my outbursts of loud and obnoxious laughs… but when you work with someone for over two years, and you become each other's best friends, you just know what gets the other person laughing. And that's what Cory knows about me – he knows my sense of humor. It's incredibly sexy, and scary, at the same time. At the same time, I know his sense of humor. It's more spontaneous than mine. Cory can sing every word to any song that The Lonely Island has made, including my favorite, 'Jack Sparrow.' Just something about that Michael Bolton collaboration…

Which would explain why we were listening to The Lonely Island as we drove to the beach.

'Motherlover' was playing in the background. Cory would sing Justin Timberlake's part around set, and Kevin would sing Andy Samberg's part. It was probably the funniest thing that these two did together… I should ask them to do it later. That would be AMAZING, considering they hadn't done it in a few months. 'The Creep' is another winner, between Cory, Mark, and Kevin – and Amber would sing Nicki's part. I'm surprised none of us have recorded it and tweeted it yet. But you know, if other people knew about this, they'd just put it all of their fan fiction stories, and it'd be completely ruined and overplayed. We didn't have much that stayed between just the cast anymore, since the fans always seem to find out everything. We all appreciated having something sacred.

I could hear him humming the song under his breath while we weren't speaking to each other. He had no idea how badly I just wanted to get to that damn beach, and it felt like he had been driving for an hour. I mean, we could have stopped anywhere on that damn street, parked the car on the side of the road, and walked for two minutes over sand dunes and over small wooden fences to dip our feet in the ocean. But I didn't question him. My mom always told me never to question a man when he is driving, unless you know for absolutely sure he is going the completely wrong way. And in this situation, I had no idea. So, heeding my mother's advice, I kept my lips shut and let Cory drive.

When I mentioned earlier that we were driving down a one-lane road, I really meant it. About ten minutes after our conversation about the weather, the street that we were driving on discontinued. The black-top led us directly to a small empty parking lot. "We're here," Cory informed me as he turned his car into a vacant parking spot, before cutting the engine,

"This is the beach?" I asked, looking out the window. There was no boardwalk, a public bathroom, a food and drink shack, or even a beach house, anywhere in sight. Just the parking lot that we had parked in, and a small wooden flight of stairs that led to a small ramp over a sand dune.

Cory nodded as he hopped out of the driver's seat. I decided to follow suit, so I took off my seatbelt and hopped out of the car, leaving my handbag behind. I had a feeling I wasn't going to need my wallet or anything.

Once Cory came around to my side of the car, he helped me push my door shut before locking it. He slipped the keys into his pocket, and took the lead up the flight of stairs that connected to the ramp. "How did you find this place?" I asked him as we climbed the stairs, my high heels clicking on the hollow wood.

Cory didn't answer my question, but instead, offered a suggestion. "You might want to take off your heels. You're not going to be able to walk on the sand."

Good point, Cory Monteith. I paused and leaned on the wooden railing of the stairs, and I pulled off my oh-so-adorable white espadrilles. I held them by the strappy backing on a hook that I created using my index finger, and I jogged slowly to catch up to Cory, who was just a few steps ahead of me.

We were on the small wooden ramp for only a few steps before it led directly to the sand and beach. Cory stopped at the end of the ramp and waited for me, and he smiled at me when I finally reached him. "Isn't this spot great?"

I didn't reply to him. I was completely overtaken by the sights. The sun was setting over the ocean, and just like the night before, the skies were turning all sorts of beautiful colors. The sky and clouds were beautiful pink, purple, and orange hues, but everything tonight was so much more vivid and eye-catching than it was the night before. The warm sea breeze continued to blow, and when the salty air landed on my lips, I couldn't help but to lick them. I'd never been to a beach as deserted as this one, besides for that one photo shoot with Cory and I for Teen Vogue. And you have to remember; I'm a New Yorker that had relocated to New Jersey. In those parts, there are no such things as an empty beach. There was always someone around, whether it was a crowd or just a few random people all spread out. I had never seen a beach as calm, peaceful, and as clean as this one. After finally taking it all in, I looked up at Cory with a bright smile on my face. "Let's go down there."

"After you," Cory smiled as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

Never one to hold back, I dropped my shoes on the ramp and took my first steps into the sand. It was still warm from the day's sun exposure, and it was the softest grained sand I had felt in a long while. My feet sunk into the sand comfortably, and I began to walk down to the water. I was about halfway down the beach to the water when I looked back to speak to Cory. I whipped my head around and opened my mouth to speak, but he wasn't there. Instead, I spotted him on the ramp still, his hands still tucked into his pockets, but the smile on his face had shrunk into a small smirk. I paused, and I turned my whole body to face him. The wind continued to blow through my hair, and my skirt danced around my knees.

It was like a scene out of another damn Nicholas Sparks novel. We just really looked at each other for a long time, and I couldn't really even think about anything to say in the moment. It was like the scene in 'The Notebook' when Allie came back to Noah at the end, and she stood in the driveway with her suitcases after she left Lon, and Noah stood on his balcony wrapped in his blanket, and he accepted her back into his life. Yes, that was exactly this moment. Only there was no Lon in my situation, and I didn't have any suitcases. And Cory didn't have a blanket. But you get the idea!

"Get down here!" I finally yelled out to him, after I broke free of my thoughts. I was dying to get into that water, and I just wanted Cory to be with me.

At my request, Cory stepped off of the ramp, and he made his way down towards me. God, could that man be any more beautiful to look at? His t-shirt was blown up against his body, revealing his perfectly (to me, anyway!) sculpted chest, and his brown, slightly curly hair moved in the breeze. It was as if I had lost my breath for a few minutes, and I lost my balance in the sand. I changed my footing as Cory approached me.

"Finally," I smirked as I reached out and grabbed his hand. As I gripped his hand in mine, I led him towards the water. "Let's go," I squealed as I started jogging down to the crashing waves, pulling him behind me.

Together, Cory and I jogged down to the water. It was almost like we were jogging in slow motion. We both stopped right as we got to the water's edge. Cory kicked his flip-flops off and tossed them to the side before we both took our last few steps towards the water. We were still holding hands, and I could feel the electricity just pulsing right through us. It was like our pulses were completely in sync, our breathing patterns one in the same. It was pretty cool.

A small wave crashed ashore, and it rolled up the sand just high enough to get our toes wet. The water couldn't have been any more comfortable. Really, this was too perfect. Where were the camera crews hiding? The director to yell "Cut!"? How was all of this really working out like this?

"We need to go in deeper," Cory suggested before giving my hand a quick squeeze.

"Okay," I agreed, and Cory pulled me closer to the water. We were now standing at that point that no matter what sized wave came in, you were going to get wet. Every time a wave came in, Cory and I held onto each other's hands tightly and braced ourselves. The bottom of my dress and Cory's shorts were pretty wet after the first few large crashes of waves, and I wasn't quite sure how we were going to explain to everyone why we were both wet. Maybe, though, we could just sneak into the house without them noticing. We'd work in it later.

"We're not in deep enough," Cory smiled as he looked down at me.

"What are you talking about, you crazyhead?" I asked him with a laugh. "Look at us, we're soaked!"

"Come on, we're at the beach," he responded, his lips curled up into a mischievous smile.

"Then why didn't you tell me to wear a bathing suit?"

"What fun is that?"

"You can't make me go in," I laughed as I tried my best to bury my feet into the wet sand.

Cory let go of my hand before smiling. "Oh yeah?" he asked before walking behind me. Now, at this point, I would have moved away, but I had buried my feet in the sand, and I couldn't get them out in time to run away. So instead, Cory wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up from behind, swiftly pulling my feet out from beneath the sand.

I couldn't help put squeal and kick as Cory held me in his arms. At first, I was terrified because the last thing I wanted him to do was to toss me into the water, because that's just not a good look for me. But then, when I realized that he was coming into the water with me, and that he was going to get just as wet as I was, I didn't mind it so much. We'd be equal. I began to laugh and beg, "No, no, no!" as. Cory carried me farther into the water, and now in his arms, I was getting soaked from the splashing and crashing waves.

"I won't let go," Cory assured me with a laugh as we took a few more steps into the water. He stopped with me when he was about waist deep, which meant that the water levels were going to be right up to my breasts, but he didn't put me down. Somehow, and I'm not sure how he managed hit, he was able to turn me around, so we were face to face. At first, I hadn't realized that I was laughing hysterically in his face as we were getting pounded with water, but then when I realized that I was all up in his face, I calmed myself down.

"What are we doing?" I had to ask him before getting splashed with another wave. My hair had started to get wet, and my outfit was a lost cause. But it was okay - his was too.

Cory looked into my eyes for a while, and I wasn't complaining. I knew he was trying to formulate what he was going to say to me. And in that moment, he could have told me that the sky was falling and I would have thought that it was the most romantic thing in the world. Finally, he gave up on his words, and he leaned in and kissed me. Yeah, this was good too. I don't know how long we had been kissing, but I could feel the ocean current pulling us in, and it had been a struggle to maintain the kiss and our position in the water at the same time. I did know, though, that it was one of those deep, passionate kisses - a kiss that we had never used in front of the cameras. There was just so much rooted meaning and feeling, and it was one of those kisses that you never wanted to end. Cory played with my wet hair as I ran my hands up and down his soaked back, and I had eventually wrapped my legs around his tree-trunk of a waist.

Cory pulled his lips off of mine once the current became too strong to stand against. "You want to go back to the sand?" he asked me as he looked straight into my eyes.

Without even blinking an eye, I nodded my head. Against the current, Cory somehow managed to get us both back to land, and when the water was low enough for me to be able to stand, he put me down. I looked down at my outfit after we got out of the waves, and I looked like a hot mess. It was one of those dresses that just didn't look good when it was wet, but I was stuck in it. There was no option to change, or even take it off, because I could only imagine what my underwear looked like. Instead, I bent down, gathered my skirt, and tried my best to wring all of the water out of it.

"I don't think that'll work," Cory laughed as he took my hand and led me to dry sand. He didn't even give my skirt a chance, but I was okay with it. I just hoped that we would dry off as time went on. My heart was beating practically out of my chest when he had grabbed my hand, and he led me over to a small mound of sand that overlooked the ocean perfectly. "Sit down," he directed me as he took a seat on the sand, and he had pulled on my arm as he went down. I quickly followed suit, and sat closely next to him.

"What's with all of this, Cory?" I asked him as I looked deeply into his copper-brown eyes. "Carrying me into the water, getting us two absolutely soaked, kissing me… and now bringing me back here. What are you up to?"

Cory just smiled at first as he looked at me. His eyes darted from my eyes, to my lips, and then back to his eyes. I know from experiences on set that whenever he looks at my lips, he wants to go in for the kiss, but I wasn't letting him have it so easily this time. Every time I saw his eyes travel down to my lips, I folded my lips inside my mouth, hiding them from him. And every time I did that, he smiled a little wider, and I knew that he knew why I was doing what I was doing. I guess it was just a part of the connection that we shared. After a few moments of looking at me, he finally spoke up to explain himself.

"Do you remember that first day we met, when I asked you for coffee in your trailer?" he asked me as he reached for my hand.

I nodded my head. "Of course. You had spilled it all over your floor."

"Well, when I first saw you in your trailer, you looked so calm and normal, and my insides were just one big ball of nerves. I always loved how you kept it all together, even though this was such a big deal. Us being on television in our own show and everything."

I wasn't quite sure where Cory was going with all of this, but I did appreciate the backstory. I gripped onto his hand tightly as he took a pause to collect his thoughts.

"We've always been close, Lea, and I've always loved that, that connection that I think that we have between us that I'm not sure if anyone else in the cast has between them. I feel like we can always go to each other about anything, and I know that whenever I'm around you, whether it's just for a few minutes during lunch or when we're together much longer, it always makes me feel happy. A level of happiness that I'm not really used to, but it's a level that I like being at."

I'm pretty sure I was as beaming as brightly as the sun was shining at this point, and I knew I had to interrupt him and say something. I licked my lips slightly before speaking. "I know exactly how you feel, Cory. You know me, I'm not a morning person, really. But when I know that I get to be around you at an insane hour of the morning, or really any time of day, it makes waking up easy. I look forward to time I get to spend with you."

"Stop stealing my lines!" Cory joked as he nudged me with his shoulder into my arm.

"Sorry," I laughed. "Okay, you keep talking then."

"Well you took my whole 'morning person' speech away from me!"

I laughed again, and I dropped my head into my chest. "I whole-heartedly apologize."

"Fine, apology accepted," he replied, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "Now, where was I?"

"Level of happiness," I reminded him quickly. It was like I was already archiving this speech to refer back to on our wedding day.

"Right," he nodded, and we both looked back at each other. "So, you just make me feel like I'm better at everything. Before this show, I felt like a terrible singer, and even my scenes were less than stellar. But as soon as I got to work with you, it was like I was learning from the master. You knew how to carry yourself, how to really get your point across in your songs, and just pull people in to direct all of their attention on you. I always admired that about you, and I don't think anyone gives you enough credit about that."

I didn't verbally reply, but I did nod my head with a sincere smile. He was just being so sweet, and I didn't want to interrupt him.

"The problem is with all of this, Lea, is that over all of this time, over the filming and the working together off of the set, and over all of the time we spent together as just friends, and over all of the time we were on tour, and over all of the time we just spoke on the phone with each other about our days or whatever bullshit it was, is that I feel like I can never get enough of you."

Honestly, if I could have collapsed at this point, I would have. It was probably good planning on Cory's part to sit me down, because my knees would have buckled and I would have hit the sand like a rock if I were standing up. And through all of this, I'm fairly sure my heart had stopped beating. I was just running on reserved energy now.

"Do you have any idea what I'm getting at?" Cory asked as he squeezed my hand tighter. I think he knew that I wasn't breathing at this point, and all the blood had rushed out of my face and pretty much into every square millimeter of my female reproductive organs, and I wasn't even menstruating.

"Yes," I was able to mutter with wide brown eyes, and I cleared my throat just to get my blood moving again.

"I have a confession to make," Cory admitted.

"Oh, um, okay," I stammered as I readjusted my sitting position on the sand. It wasn't where I thought he was going with the progression of this conversation, and it threw me off.

"I didn't go jogging with the guys before like I told you."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Okay," I replied slowly, not quite sure if I was supposed to be happy about it or continued to be puzzled.

"All the guys know how I feel about you, and they've known for a while now. After we spent that first night together in bed, well, I guess you could just say the other day, even though it feels so long ago now… I knew that I just couldn't continue to lay next to you and not have you know what has been running through my mind. So, instead of jogging, the guys and I went looking for the spot that I would be bringing you tonight. And here we are, this is what we were able to find. It was a small little deserted beach, far off the beaten path, but as soon as we all saw it, we knew it was the perfect spot. No distractions, no interruptions, just us."

At this point, I was so speechless. This was all supposed to be my thing, this forbidden love situation where I hide these feelings and admire the man I love from afar, all while being his best friend. I was in love with Cory for years, I was the one who wanted to be with him more than anything the world, I was the one who was planning our wedding, I was the one who could see ourselves living one of those happily-ever-after stories that you only hear about in romance novels. It just blew my mind to hear the man that I was in love with say these things back to me, without even any cues or hints from me. I was supposed to be the one searching for this location that only we could go to and spend alone time together, this spot that would be exclusive and all to us, and no one else would ever know about it. And really, why did we waste all of this time? Why couldn't we have done all of this YEARS ago?

"So, what I'm really getting at, is that I really want to give this thing we have between us a chance. And I'm asking you to do this, blind to what you are feeling about me. I guess I should have asked you sooner how you felt about me, but you know what, I felt like you needed to know where I was coming from. It would allow me to explain my actions of the past few days, and if any of this makes you feel uncomfortable, or if you don't want to take this any further than it is right now, I will somehow manage to understand."

It didn't take me long to figure out how to respond, but I felt that talking in this situation would completely take away from that whole confession of love that Cory made to me. Instead of using my words, I used my actions to really show him how I felt. I leaned into Cory and I pressed my lips against his, kissing him forcefully but passionately. I really leaned into him (I was excited!), and I put so much pressure on him and the kiss that he laid back onto the sand. I followed his lead, and with a quick motion, I found the strength to swing my leg over his body, and I straddled him. My chest was pressing up against his chest, my arms rested on the sand on both sides of his body, and my wet hair was draped into his face. We made out for a long while, and it wasn't one of those kisses that felt like a while but really only lasted a few minutes – this kiss really consumed time, and our energy. Cory wrapped his arms around my waist as we were getting into it, and he managed to flip me over, so he was on top – similar to the position that we were in when we were in bed earlier in the morning. His lips traveled from my lips to my chin, and then from my chin to the side of my neck. It was the same sweet spot that he had been kissing earlier, the one that made me moan – and I was really impressed that he remembered where my sweet spot was. He was really focusing on me and my body, and really, I would have ripped all of my clothes off right there if I could have. Too soon, maybe?

"Cory," I moaned to him as he played with my neck with his lips and teeth, pulling at my skin before kissing it and sucking on it lightly.

"Yeah?" he responded as he moved his lips off of my neck and inched his way back up towards my mouth.

"Look at me," I asked him, and right away, I caught his attention. He lifted his head completely, and looked at me right in the eyes.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, and his face grew concerned.

"Oh, yeah," I assured him before leaning up on my elbows. I smiled as I kept eye contact with him. "I just wanted to tell you something."

He nodded his head and anticipated my response to everything – really, a whole lot had happened after we got out of his car when we first arrived here at the beach.

"I've wanted to give you everything I had since we first got to know each other," I completely admitted, not sugar-coating anything. "I've only dreamed about being with you, and all I've ever wanted is to be something more than friends with you. I want to be with you, Cory – everything you feel, I feel it a hundred times stronger."

As I spoke to him, I could tell it was difficult for him to hold in excitement, and I was feeling the same way that he was. I laughed before leaning up further towards him, and I placed a small kiss on his lips. "Be my boyfriend?" I asked him.

"So now I can be your best fake boyfriend _and_ your best real boyfriend?" he joked, referring to my nickname for him on set.

I nodded my head excitedly before kissing him once more. "I'd be your best fake and real girlfriend. I'd rock both of your worlds!"

He laughed before cupping my chin with his hands. "Well, then, I want to be rocked," he smirked before kissing me again.

I don't quite know how much longer we were at the beach. We made out for a little while longer, and then we watched the sunset over the ocean in each other's arms. The last thing I really remember is laying back onto the sand with him and staring up at the moon and stars in the sky, with our hands folded together, his thumb rubbing up against my thumb, my head resting on his rising and falling chest. I must have fallen asleep to the thumping of his heart and the soothing sound of the rolling waves coming ashore. It was the most comforting feeling in the world – I finally got what I had always wanted.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

We padded up the front steps of the house in the early hours of the morning barefoot – we had both lost track of our shoes at the beach. Cory dropped his somewhere in the sand near the water, so we suspected his got taken away by the waves, but my espadrilles went completely missing. I suspected that sand drifts covered them in the middle of the night, but Cory said that it would be impossible. I don't know, though – nothing seems impossible to me at this point. The sun was starting to rise, and the sky was still a deep indigo blue. The clouds had not gotten their color from the sun yet, and the sky hadn't completely brightened.

Cory woke up on the beach first, when it was still in the middle of the night. He was able to shake me awake off of his chest, and we were able to use only the light of the moon to guide us back to the ramp that led to the car in the parking lot. And as Cory drove us back to the house, I fell asleep in the passenger seat with my head against the window.

I reached out and turned the knob on the front door of the house and it didn't budge. The door was locked and I didn't have the key. I looked back at Cory. "You have the key?" I whispered to him, being careful to keep quiet and not wake anyone up.

He patted his pockets and checked the inside of his wallet quickly, and then he looked up at me with wide eyes. "I don't have it," he muttered quietly. "It must still be on the nightstand."

I covered my mouth with both of my hands, partly in shock, and partly because I wanted to just start laughing. Of course we would have to wake someone up to answer the door for us when we were trying to fly under the radar. They already must have figured we couldn't find a place to eat for dinner, considering we never came back, and frankly, I was insulted they didn't send a search party out for us. Of course, the guys were up to Cory's plan all along, so they must have filled the girls in.

"Okay, let's think," I whispered to Cory as I leaned against the railing on the porch. My dress was almost completely dry, although it was crunchy from all of the absorbed salt water. "It's six in the morning. Would anyone still be awake right now?"

Cory let out a deep breath and tucked his hands into the front pockets of his shorts. "Well, I don't know how much anyone had to drink tonight. My best guess would be that Chris would be our best bet. You know how lightly he sleeps. You could flush the toilet down the hallway and he would be wide awake at the sound."

"Should we try giving him a call?" I suggested. "It might be the only way into the house."

He nodded before scooping his cell phone out of the pocket of his shorts. Quickly, he found Chris' number in his phone book, dialed it, and placed the phone up to his ear. Cory didn't wait for longer than a few seconds before Chris had picked up the phone. Cory spoke to Chris quietly, but quickly, and Cory was able to convince Chris to come down and open the door for us. After his conversation, he slipped the phone back in his pocket, and we waited at the door patiently.

"Thanks for tonight, Cory," I whispered to him as we both walked up to the door and waited for it to open.

He bent down and gave me a small kiss on my forehead. "It was my pleasure."

We didn't wait long at the door before it swung open, and Chris was there to greet us. He looked tired, as if we had just pulled him out of bed, and we apologized profusely, but quietly, as we entered the house. "I want a full explanation about this in Dianna and Jenna's room _pronto_," he hissed his request, pointing at our two messy outfits and my frizzy hair and disheveled makeup.

"Goodnight," I lied to Chris before giving him a small kiss on the cheek and a wink of the eye, and with that, I followed Cory into the bedroom.

I could hear Chris mutter something under his breath before he began the walk up the stairs to Dianna and Jenna's bedroom, but I didn't ask him to repeat himself. Instead, I was close on Cory's heels. Right away, he walked over to the nightstand, and sure enough, there was the key. He chuckled as he picked it up to show me, and I just responded with a smile and a nod of my head.

"You taking a shower?" Cory asked as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. This man wasn't being discreet in the slightest.

"I don't know, are you?" I smirked as I rested my hands on my hips. I was thoroughly interested in what he was going to say next.

He chuckled before tossing his t-shirt onto the floor, starting a new dirty laundry pile. "I might take a two-second one real quick, just to wash all the sand and salt water off. I'll take a real one, like with shampoo and everything, tomorrow."

"Good idea," I agreed. I could tell that what he was suggesting was a solo venture, and I didn't pursue it any longer. "You going first?"

With a quick nod of his head, he grabbed a pair of grey boxers and red basketball shorts out of his suitcase. "Yeah, but like I said, I'll be fast."

"Okay," I responded, and he walked past me and entered the bathroom. He shut the door quietly behind him, and left me alone in the bedroom.

You see, that wasn't just my friend Cory going to take a shower now. That's actually my boyfriend. My boyfriend was just behind that little thin wooden door getting naked and wet. Yep, picture that, ladies. If I wanted to, I could go in there and take a shower with him. If I wanted to (but wouldn't in a million years), I could pee in front of him. I could tell him gross things that he'd never need to know about women, or I could complain about my family to him, all because I simply could. This was a whole new world, and brand new territory, for us to discover.

Almost as soon as Cory closed the bathroom door, I quickly, but quietly, padded out of the bedroom and right up the stairs. All of the lights were off, which left the house eerily darkened, only to be slightly lit by the beginnings of the sunrise, but under the crack of Dianna and Jenna's bedroom door, I could see that their light was on. Chris must have woken them up, since the three of them didn't share a room. Shit, I had explaining to do.

I let myself into the bedroom, and as soon as I had opened the door, Jenna squealed as best as she could under her breath, and Dianna clapped her hands together as if she had just watched a Broadway play. Chris sat on the edge of Jenna's bed with his legs crossed, and with bright eyes, he spoke. "Spill it!"

"Spill what?" I asked as I played coy. I shut the door behind me and I leaned up against it. I tossed my head back, looked up at the ceiling, and smiled the biggest smile I had left. I couldn't not speak about it any longer – it had to come out. "It was the most romantic night of my entire life!" I gushed.

"What happened?" Jenna asked as she leaned forward on the bed and clutched her pillow around her chest. She and her boyfriend Michael had been together for so long that she had always said that she'd forgotten what romance felt like. She lived vicariously through her friends, stating that we needed to go and make love for her. I personally think she's insane. So does Dianna.

"Okay, so, he took me to this desolate beach at sunset, you know when we both left to look for the place to eat for dinner tomorrow. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect, the water was warm, and he just looked scrumptious. First, I started going down to the water, but he wasn't following, so I stopped until he got there, and then once he got to me, he took my hand and we went into the water together…" I repeated the entire story as it happened, and I must have been rambling for at least ten minutes, filling them in on every detail and word of conversation that I could remember. The whole time I retold the events of the night, Jenna clutched her pillow and cooed, Dianna laughed and ooh'ed and ahh'ed giddily, and Chris had his handed folded and propped them up against his chin as he eagerly listened. And after I had finished telling the story, I pressed my lips together and looked at Chris. "How did you know something was up between me and Cory? We never told you anything."

"You didn't have to," he coyly smiled. "What else are you two doing out for hours and come home looking like you had hot sex up against a sand dune? I'm surprised you don't have a sea creature in your hair."

I reached for my hair and combed through my thick, sticky waves with my fingers self-consciously. What if I had a starfish stuck in there or something?

"I'm so excited for you two," Dianna finally said. "It really took you two long enough. Who would have ever suspected Cory had all those feelings?"

"I know!" I gasped as I dropped my hands and placed them behind my back. "If I would have known all the things that I know now back then, this whole thing would be one big different story. And now we have that one place that is just ours, where we can go to whenever we wanted, or really whenever we're in the area, and think back to this special night. Or we can go to that place if we want to just escape from the world for a while, just get away from everything. You all know how important that is to me."

Jenna cleared her throat before speaking. "I don't know. You always told us you wanted to go somewhere with Cory that only you two knew about, like you did just now, your special little place, but…" she started to say, before trailing off.

"We have it. That beach is our place," I told her with a confident nod of his head.

"No," Jenna replied, and it threw me off a bit. "Cory found that place with the guys. He didn't find it on his own, so it's not this place that only you two know about. It's a place that you and Cory know about, along with Mark, Harry, Kevin, and Chord."

"Mhm," Chris nodded his head with a pouted bottom lip. "Truth. You need a new place."

"What?" I hissed before giving Dianna and glare. "What do you think, Di?"

She paused before she answered, and I already knew it wasn't a good sign. "I don't know," she replied. "I love the sentimental and special idea of your place being the beach, and it could still be a place. But I don't know if it's _your_ place."

"Well, where is our place supposed to be? The beach was the most secluded destination that I've ever seen," I claimed as I got frustrated. "I don't know where else our place could be."

"We can't help you with that," Chris informed me with a small frown. "That's the place where only you two know. We can't give you suggestions because you'll be right back in the same place you started."

I let out a heavy sigh before I took a step away from the door. "I should get some sleep," I said as I walked over to Dianna, Jenna, and Chris and gave them all hugs. "I'll figure this all out tomorrow."

We all said our goodnights, and I left the bedroom to go walk back downstairs to mine. Dianna, Jenna, and Chris all had very valid points, and I admit, they weren't wrong. But now, I had to think of a new spot, somewhere special and secluded and unique that we could refer to as our own. And we could keep the beach too.

I headed back into our bedroom and I noticed that Cory was already in bed. I smiled softly and walked over to my suitcase that was on the floor. I pulled a pair of pajamas out from a pile and placed it on the bed. Since I wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not, I figured it wouldn't be the best idea if I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. It made a strange whirring sound that could wake up a hibernating bear, and I just couldn't disturb my new boyfriend. Quietly, I slipped out of my dress and let it fall to the floor. It hit the carpet with a heavy thump, and as the sound was made, Cory shifted in bed. I froze, standing beside the bed in only my bra and underwear, hoping he wouldn't turn his head to look at me. The first time he would see me as his girlfriend in lingerie couldn't be dirty, salt-water soaked and dried ones. I slipped my clean pajamas on quietly, vowing to wash everything, including the sheets and pillowcases tomorrow.

I tiptoed around the bedroom and shut off all of the lights and closed the curtains. The sun was starting to rise higher in the sky, and I had to block as much of it as I could to get a decent night's sleep. And when everything was done and suitable, I made my way over to my side of the bed, pulled down the covers, an slipped in between the sheets. I pulled the covers up over my shoulders, leaving only my head above the blankets.

Under the blanket, Cory's hand took mine, and he held it tightly. "Goodnight, Lea," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Cory," I smiled.


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: I want to apologize for this chapter being posted so late! This has been an incredibly busy week and weekend – after visiting the location that inspired this story for the weekend (Quogue, New York – despite the story being set in La Jolla, California!), I began a very busy week at my teaching job, as well as graduate school. Things are slowing down a bit now, so hopefully writing and updating will have more of a place in my day. Without any further delay, here's the new chapter!**

**Chapter 16**

I woke up early in the afternoon – around 2 p.m. – which was actually pretty good, considering Cory and I only went to bed when the sun was beginning to rise. Cory was still fast asleep next to me when I stirred awake, but since his back was turned to me and his arms were hanging off of the side of the bed, I was able to slip out easily.

Without hesitating, I grabbed a clean pair of underwear, a pair of shorts, and a tank top out of my suitcase and headed straight into the shower. I stripped down and stepped into the shower. And I stood under the showerhead and I let the warm water wash over my body, and I really tried to clear my mind. We had only been here for a few days, and still, my entire world had been switched upside down. Even though the shower door was pulled shut to keep the water in the shower stall, I still kept looking through the frosted glass and towards the door. Right on the other side of that door was my sleeping boyfriend. And I know I went though this the night before – when he was standing in this very shower naked, I was in the bedroom looking at the door, thinking that in this very shower was my very naked boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

I really had to let that title sink in. Boyfriend. I was so used to referring to him as "best guy friend", "fake boyfriend", "best fake boyfriend ever"… but never did I actually think that coming to this house with all of my friends that were more like family did I ever expect for Cory to become my boyfriend. For me to become his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

I was no longer the "best girl friend", "fake girlfriend", or "best fake girlfriend ever." I could actually call my grandma and tell her that my television boyfriend was now my real boyfriend, and I could now be referred to as Cory's girlfriend. I'm pretty sure my grandma still wants to just get her hands on Cory and wrap him in a big grandma hug and leave a big grandma kiss on his cheek. And Cory would love it. He has to – he's my boyfriend, and that's just what boyfriends do.

Oh God, I had to call Jon and tell him all of this! Mr. Groff has heard about Cory and my love for him ever since Cory and I started on this show together. In fact, besides Dianna and Jenna, Jon has been there to listen to my ramblings and gushings and everything there was to ever say about Cory. He even tried to drop some hints to Cory whenever they were around each other – Jon would be _thrilled _at the thought that Cory actually picked up on them (even if Cory really didn't).

Since I knew that I really had to get to Jon as quickly as I could, I shampooed and conditioned my hair quickly, and shaved my legs and armpits like the razor was on fire. I didn't bother with any body wash, since I had a feeling that in a few hours, I'd smell like chlorine anyway. After I had finished my shower in just mere minutes, I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower before toweling off and changing into my clean clothes.

With my hair tied up in my towel, I emerged from the steamy bathroom and dropped my pajamas on top of the pile of dirty laundry that I knew I would have to wash later. Cory was still asleep in bed, and a small snore could be heard against the firm white pillow. I smirked as I grabbed my iPhone off of the nightstand and headed out of the bedroom. I headed upstairs, and as soon as I made it to the top step, all of the guy's heads turned and looked at me. Kevin smirked and raised his voice first.

"Had a good night last night?" he asked as he twirled around on the dining room chair.

I nodded and smiled. There was no shot that I was spilling the goods, and I knew that Dianna, Jenna, and Chris wouldn't say a thing to the girls, even though I knew the guys knew what was up. "Yep," I replied as I walked towards the kitchen.

"What's for dinner tonight?" Mark asked with a smile.

I cleared my throat and shook my head. "I don't know. We couldn't find a good place. We'll figure it out later."

Darren simply grinned as he fetched a mug for my coffee. He handed it to me, and I took it over to the coffee pot, where just about a half a pot of hot coffee sat. I poured myself a generous cup and fixed it with sugar and soymilk. "Thanks," I smiled at him before I brought my mug of coffee to my lips and took a sip.

Through the kitchen window, I spotted Dianna and Jenna in the pool. I took my phone and my mug of coffee and I headed outside. "Good morning," I greeted my two best friends as I walked over to them. I approached the pool, sat down on the ledge, and placed my feet and legs into the water.

"Good afternoon to you too," Jenna smiled as she swam up to me.

"How did you sleep?" Dianna asked, also as she swam to my side.

I smiled brightly and replied before taking another sip of coffee. "Wonderfully."

"I bet you did," Jenna giggled. "Tell me, how was it?"

"How was what?" I asked as I licked my lips. "Nothing happened. He showered while I came up to speak to you girls and Chris, and then after I got to bed, we just held hands until we both fell asleep."

Dianna furrowed her eyebrows. "That's it? Your first night together as a couple and you just held hands?"

"What did you two expect me to do?" I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. "Jump his bones? Start dry-humping him? We had quite a lengthy make-out session on the beach… That was enough for me on our first night. And besides, you never go too far with a guy at the beginning of a relationship. You need to keep it interesting and spicy as time goes on. That's, like, rule number one of a new relationship. Common knowledge."

Jenna smirked as she treaded water. "I never followed that rule."

"Bad girl!" Dianna giggled as she splashed Jenna with water.

"What?" Jenna asked as she laughed. "Let's just say that the boys loved me in high school."

"Oh my God," I laughed as I buried my head in my hands. "You know, it makes sense. Michael always looks so happy whenever I see you two together."

"I'm such a good girlfriend," Jenna proudly smirked. "I'll give you tips whenever you need them," she offered me.

"Oh, I'll remember that," I laughed as we gave each other a high five. I took a deep breath and looked down at my phone next to me. "I really have to call Jon and fill him in on everything. I really think he's going to shit his pants when I reveal all."

"Do it!" Dianna exclaimed with wide eyes. "And let me talk to him too! I haven't called him in a while."

"I'm pretty sure he'll be unresponsive after I get done with him," I chuckled as I unlocked the phone and quickly found his number. "You girls didn't tell anyone about me and Cory, right?" I asked Dianna and Jenna, and they both shook their heads 'no' quickly.

Before I got a chance to respond to them, Jon picked up the phone. "What's up, babe?" he greeted me, assumingly after he read my name on his caller ID.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. "So good to hear your voice."

"Same," he replied. "I talked to your dad today. He says hello and that he loves you."

"Aww, daddy," I giggled. Jon and my father were good friends – in fact, my father always said he wanted Jon to marry me, despite the fact that he's gay, just because my father loves Jon so much. I can't blame him – Jon is the best friend that I've ever had because we've been through so many up's and down's together, and Jenna and Dianna were my two best girl friends that I'd be lost without. And Cory, well boy, you're now filling the position of best friend and boyfriend, a joint position that trumps my heart. Don't get on me – I know my friend grouping is confusing, but I have so many important and special people in my life that I just can't pick one _best_ friend.

"So, what's going on? How's La Jolla? Any juicy gossip about my California friends?" he asked, and I could practically hear him stop everything that he could have been doing at that moment to sit down and listen to every little detail that I would share.

"What could be the craziest thing that I could tell you about this vacation right now?" I asked him with a small smirk.

"Oh my God, Darren and Chris sealed the deal?"

I cocked my head and furrowed my eyebrows. "Um, no. Guess again."

"Naya and Heather sealed the deal?"

"Keep guessing," I smiled.

"Someone got arrested! No, that would have been on TMZ…" He paused to think before asking a question. "It was a hook-up, right?"

"Yes," I confirmed, and the smile on my face grew wider.

"Lea Michele Sarfati, don't play games with my heart right now…" he started before his voice trailed off.

I laughed because I could practically see his wide brown eyes and small O-shaped mouth. "What?" I asked coyly.

"You and Cory?"

"Me and Cory what?" I asked with a giggle, and as soon as I giggled, I could hear Jon gasp for all of the air that was in the room.

"Oh my God!" he shrieked. It was amazing how I get more reaction from one man over the telephone than I got from my three best friends put together last night. "You guys hooked up?"

"Yes, and better!"

Jon paused. "You two screwed, didn't you?" he asked as calmly as his voice would let him.

"What? No! You know me better than that!"

"Okay, Lea, you've only wanted to hop on that bone for two years now! How am I supposed to know?"

"It was so romantic, Jon, you have no idea," I gushed as I leaned back and lay on the concrete with my legs still in the water.

"Tell me everything that happened so far on this entire trip! Don't you leave one little detail out of the entire story. I'll sit here for as long as I have to."

"Okay, so… first night, we get here, Cory and I find out that there's only one bed left in the house, and we have to share it. I didn't have a problem with it, obviously, and neither did he. So, we've technically been sleeping together, if you want to put it that way."

"Totally counts. Go on," he probed.

"On that first night, we all play a big game of Truth or Dare."

"Oh shit," Jon muttered.

"Pretty much. So, we were all playing, people were making out, taking shots, Darren and Chris had to skinny dip… and then I had to give a lap dance."

Jon chuckled. "No you didn't!"

"I did!" I laughed. "So Mark dared me to do it, and the dare was that I had to give him one. So, I put on my PCD…"

"'Don't Cha?'" Jon interrupted.

"You know it. And I gave him a small little lap dance. But afterwards, I was all thrown off and feeling bad, so I went inside. Dianna gave me a good pep talk, and then Cory and I talked it over before we went to bed…"

This conversation with Jon went on for nearly a half hour. It was filled with giggles, gasps, outbursts of questions, interjections of snarky comments, and many cooing aww's. And I told him everything – everything that happened, everything that I was feeling, everything that Cory could have been feeling, what everyone else was doing… I really spilled everything. I'm fairly sure Jon could have given me a day-by-day recap that was perfectly accurate. Jenna and Dianna, though, stayed in the water for the entire retelling, and I gave them some major credit. If I was one of them listening to someone else gush about a relationship, I probably would have dry heaved my way out of that bitch. But the way that they stayed and continued to react to the retelling of events really proved how good of friends they really were to me. By the time I was done with the story, I could hear Jon breathing heavily, and I wasn't sure if it was from tears, or general excitement, or if he also felt like he had just run a marathon. Hey, this was all very exciting.

"Do you have any idea how incredible this whole thing is?" Jon asked me, and I admit, I was curious to hear where he was going with it. "People want something like this to happen to them. They would pay good, honest-earned money to have something even similar to what you and Cory are sharing right now. Not to get all Disney on you, but it's pretty fairytale-like. I mean, sure, you're no Snow White and he's no Dwarf, but it's just so amazing. So, so amazing. Are there any pictures to document any of this vacation?"

"No," I smiled. "None of us have taken any pictures, as far as I know, anyway. It's one of those escape vacations. No one brought their computers, no one is really watching television besides, like, the sports recaps in the morning, and this is the first time that I've made a call since we've arrived."

Jon smiled – I could hear it through the phone. "Go, do your thing. Call me when you get back to the apartment in Los Angeles."

"You sure?" I asked him.

"I just took a half our out of your time there with your friends. Just give me a call next week. I'm stopping by your parents' house for dinner this weekend. Should I share the good news?"

"No!" I quickly replied and I sat up with a bolt. "None of this leaves this house until we do. I'll tell my parents the next time I visit. Say hi to them for me."

"Will do. Love you, baby girl."

"Love you too. Be good!" I warned him with a smile.

"Always am," he toyed. "Bye."

"Bye." I ended the call and subsequently shut off my phone. I placed it at my side and looked at my girls in the pool. "What's on the agenda for today?" I asked with my lips curled up into a smile.

Jenna let out a sigh as she dipped her head backwards into the water to wet her long black hair. "I suppose we're still doing dinner as a group, but we don't know where yet."

"Thanks for nothing," Dianna smirked as she splashed water onto my legs. "I wasn't looking forward to eating the dinner with my best friends at a fancy restaurant or anything."

"I'm sorry!" I laughed as I kicked my left leg, which splashed water right back at her. "We'll just have to call around and see what we can do."

Dianna, Jenna, and I spoke for a little bit about what kind of food we were craving; Jenna wanted a great array of sushi, Dianna wanted to delve into a large leafy salad, and I would be up for a great pasta loaded with veggies. We then tried to figure out what meal option would be easiest to get everyone else on board with. Sushi had won, and so the next plan was to now find a sushi place that could accommodate our large group.

During all of this conversation, I peered into the house and through the window, I spotted Cory moving about in the kitchen. My lips instantly curled into a smile, and I struggled to stay at the pool and resist the urge to run into the house and plant a big kiss on his lips. To keep the word mum, I knew I would have to wait a few hours before I really got to lay a good one on him. Good things come to those who wait, correct? Well, it was going to work out in my favor – with the amount of time I'd have to wait, something great was going to come.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

That night, we ended up in a sushi restaurant in the main part of town. Mark decided to take it upon himself an hour before dinner to call around to different restaurants to see if there was a back room available for us all to sit in, since we were all skeptical about people finding us all out together as a group. Not that we don't love our fans or anything, because we love them like we love life itself, but we were all on vacation to get away from the madness that was our lives. It just wouldn't be ideal if people were gawking at us as we were shoving pieces of sushi in our mouths. Do you have any idea how unattractive it is to try to eat a piece of sushi that's just too big for your mouth? First, you have to shove it in there, sometimes with your fingers, and then your cheeks are all filled with rice and seaweed and whatever else is on your sushi. You never get a full bite because you have to eat everything separately, and usually, the spot of soy sauce always lands on your tongue, and then all you can taste is the salty liquid that the rice has soaked up.

Don't ask me how I know all of this. Really, don't.

So, anyway, Mark was able to find this great sushi place. I don't know the name of it – the guys drove whatever cars we had, and all of us girls just hung out and relaxed in the passenger and back seats of whatever cars we chose. Remember how sexy I said it was when men drove, like when Cory and I drove down from Los Angeles? Yeah, Cory drove again today, and like I even need to say it, he bumped up the sexiness level when he drove dressed in his fanciest button-down shirt that he packed and his jeans. Break me off a piece of that! In fact, we all got dressed up. I straightened my hair (even my bangs!), did my make-up with Jenna's help with a smoky-eye effect, and donned my prettiest dress that I had packed – a black lacy number that ended a few inches above my knees with short black sheer cap sleeves. I capped it off (footed it off, in this case?) with a pair of black, sky-high stilettos that I really only break out in red carpet events. However, I felt that they just went perfectly with the outfit. I really packed for all occasions, as you can tell. Everyone else cleaned up nicely too, with the boys in their pressed and tailored button-down shirts (Darren even wore a tie! How cute is he?), and the girls in their cocktail dresses and high heels. Granted, it took us three or four hours to look this good, considering the amount of people in the house and the shortage of bathrooms. The guys had agreed to get ready first because they said they would be quicker, and some of them were. Chris happened to take longer than some of us girls, but you win some and you lose some, right? The girls and I got ready then while all of the boys sat on the couch and watched television. And I must admit, us girls looked _good_.

The whole group of us sat at a long, dark wooden table that was dimly lit with simple small chandeliers that hung from the high ceilings. Soft music was pumped into the room through speakers that were, I assume, hidden in the tall bamboo plants that lined the walls. Cory and I sat at the end of the table, with him getting the aisle seat, and across from us sat Darren and Chris. The rest of our group lined both sides of the rest of the table. On the other side of me was Kevin, and he was seated next to Amber. On the other side of Chris sat Heather. The rest of our group lined the remainder of the tables. And as ridiculous and far-fetched as this sounds, I couldn't think about anything else except the man that had his fingers interlaced with mine under the table that rested on his leg.

His warm touch sent chills up and down my spine. The scent of his cologne propelled my senses into overdrive. The sound of his laugh as he spoke to Darren cuddled my heart. And as I was totally overcome by him, I looked over at Chris, and he smiled warmly at me. It was like he knew what was going on in my head and what my body was feeling. I smiled back at him before rubbing my thumb against the top of Cory's hand under the table.

"You clean up so nicely, Chris," I complimented him, trying to do anything to keep myself from exploding on this chair.

"That's the seventh time you told me that tonight," he replied with his head cocked to the side. "How many glasses of pinot have you had so far, by the way?"

I eyed my near-empty wine glass. "That was my second."

He chuckled softly as he picked up his martini glass and took a sip from it. His lips puckered slightly, though he tried to hide it well. "At least it's not another Corona and lime. You should just buy stock in that company, by the way. You'd make a fortune off of your drinking."

"How often do I ever drink when we're working?" I protested, knowing full well that I hate drinking while working. Rachel Berry would never do such a thing, and neither would I.

Chris pulled his bottom lip into his mouth before replying. "Fine, you got me there. But I also think you are just getting all of the drinking out of the way now so you can enter Rachel Berry mode."

"Whatever you say, Chris Colfer."

"No, please, call me Kurt Hummel. I'm beginning to get into character," Chris smirked as he placed his hand on top of Darren's, who had his hands folded on the table in front of him.

Without missing a beat, Darren looked over at Chris and smiled his brightest Blaine Anderson smile. "Yes, honey?" he cooed, and I watched Chris' eyes light up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. God, that must be the face I make whenever Cory addresses me.

"My sweetest boo, why don't you tell Rachel and Finn what we did this summer?" Chris (or Kurt? I'm confused now…) asked Darren (Blaine?).

Darren chuckled before taking Chris' hand and placing it between his. He looked back at us and turned on the Blaine switch. It was hilarious, let me tell you. Cory and I couldn't help but laugh as Darren spoke. "Well, fellow esteemed Glee club members, Kurt and I had the most glorious summer under the Lima, Ohio sun. First, we wrote, produced, and co-starred in his Pippa Middleton musical, 'Pip Pip Hooray', which made quite a splash at Columbus Street's annual block party. I was Prince Harry and Kurt was Pippa herself, and we told about the sweetest mildly-inscestual love story in all of the United Kingdom. After that ended in mid-August, we decided to spend the rest of the summer sunbathing in my parents' backyard and catching up on all of the trashy reality television while we had time. You both know how crazy and demanding the glee club schedule can be during the school year."

I nodded empathetically towards Darren and Chris.

"What did you two lovebirds do this summer?" Chris asked with a sly smile as he tilted his head towards Darren's shoulder, clearly signaling that he was ready to be wooed with our romance.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Cory had piped up first. My heart did somersaults in my chest as he began to speak, and I think Darren and Chris could read it all over my face, and they both stifled giggles.

"Well, Rachel and I had an incredibly interesting summer. After everything that had happened at nationals, I spent most of it trying to make it up to her, since I knew that Rachel had wanted to win more than anything. I did everything that I thought that she would appreciate. First, Rachel and I spent about a week watching each and every one of her favorite movies. Every Barbra Streisand video that she had in her collection, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's', you know, the classics. Then, we worked on every solo and duet that she could have ever dreamed of or wanted to do, and I listened and applauded at the end of each one as if she was on a Broadway stage giving her final performance. We dined often at Breadstix AND I worked out a deal with the waitress to pack our leftover baggies with as many breadsticks as possible. What else did we do, baby?" he asked, as he looked into my eyes, and I thought I was going to fall off my chair.

"Oh, Finn, so many great memories," I started with a bright Rachel Berry smile. "On top of all of these things, Cory brought me to the field at school and he taught me how to toss around the football, just in case the team ever strikes over a halftime show again. We then spent lots of time at each other's houses when our parents were off at work."

"Ooh, do tell!" Chris prodded as he took his hand out of Darren's grip and clasped them over his heart.

"Tell what?" I asked. "Rachel Berry doesn't kiss and tell! What kind of woman do you think I am? Do you think Barbra would kiss and tell?"

Darren looked over at Chris and shook his head disappointingly. "What were you thinking?" he quietly asked.

Chris opened his mouth to combat Darren's question with an, I'm sure, reasonable answer, but before he could speak, the waitress arrived at the table with our plates of food. She distributed our dishes of sushi – Cory ordered a shrimp tempura roll with crab on top, Darren ordered a spicy tuna roll, and Chris got crafty with an eel and salmon roll. On the other hand, I got a vegetarian roll that was filled with julienne carrots, sliced cabbage, and red and green peppers with a side of edamame.

"How do I use these things?" Cory asked as he picked up his pair of chopsticks, which unfortunately made him release his hold on my hand.

I chuckled as I took his hand once again and fixed his fingers into position to hold the chopsticks. "It's tricky," I warned him as I rested the chopsticks in his shaped fingers.

"How do I move them?" he asked as he stared at the sticks in his right hand.

I laughed, but disguised it behind a subtle clearing of my throat. "You're a drummer. You should be good with sticks in your hands."

"That's what she said!" Chris exclaimed loudly as he pointed at Cory, and he laughed loudly, proud of his joke.

"Shit!" Cory laughed as he tossed his head back. "I walked right into that one."

Darren gave Chris a high five before consuming their meals. I went back to showing Cory how to use his chopsticks. "You've never used a pair of these before?" I asked him as I picked up my set.

He shook his head quickly. "No, I just use forks and knives."

"Okay, watch," I directed him as I quickly placed the chopsticks in between my fingers. Slowly and carefully, I showed him how to pinch the chopsticks together in air, before practicing on food. The whole time, Cory had a quizzical look on his face, and I could tell that the poor boy just couldn't get the hang of it.

"Screw it," he finally muttered and he placed his chopsticks down on the table. Then, quickly, he scooped up his first piece of sushi between his fingers and dipped it into his small soy sauce dish before popping the piece in his mouth.

I shook my head before looking at my dinner plate. "Or you could just do that," I smirked as I then picked up my first piece of sushi.

We all ate our sushi dinners together. A few of the guys swapped pieces between themselves, and Dianna passed her salad along to Jenna and I if we wanted to grab a few mixed greens and veggies. Despite not knowing how to pick up food with chopsticks, Cory was doing quite well with his fingers.

"I have to use the restroom," I whispered to Cory after we had all finished eating our meals and the waitresses had cleared our tables. I gently pushed my chair out and used the back of Cory's chair to help me get up. My dress was practically skin-tight, which made it hard to move.

"I'll go with you," he quickly whispered in return and he sprang to his feet with gusto.

"You don't have to," I said as I turned my head to look over my shoulder to speak to him, and he was quick on my trail.

The back room of the restaurant where we ate that night had it's own private bathroom, which was really quite convenient. Behind the table where we were all sitting was the wall, and behind that wall was a small hallway that led to the single shared bathroom. I started walking down the hallway, but I could hear Cory practically breathing down my neck.

"Hey," he said softly to me, almost in a whisper, and it made me snap my head around to look at him. Electricity surged through my body as he placed his hands right on my hips and pressed me up against the painted black wall. "You look beautiful tonight."

I looked up into his eyes and I saw everything that was good in the world. Thank you, God, for this moment. I smiled and I could feel my red lips stretch as far as they could travel on my face. "Thank you," I managed to breathe out.

"I can't keep my hands off of you," Cory whispered as he leaned towards me. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to mine. And I swear, if he didn't have his hands on my hips and I wasn't pressed against the wall, I'm pretty sure I would have slid right down to the hardwood floor. I raised my arms and draped them over his muscular athletic shoulders and I allowed my hands to travel through the bottom of his hair. My fingers played with his short brown curls that were starting to form as our lips and tongues danced together.

"You have to go back," I was able to mutter in between kisses, and I was able to get the most words out, shockingly, when he started to move his lips down towards my neck, because that was pretty much right when I lost my breath.

"I don't want to," Cory growled in reply.

"I have to pee," I giggled, and Cory lifted his lips off of my skin. Damnit, that feeling sucks.

"I'll wait right here for you."

"You're crazy."

"About you."


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

You know when you have one of those great nights with friends, the ones when you laugh about anything and everything, tell each other funny stories, look back on some great times that you all had together, and you all acted your shoe size? Yeah, this was one of those nights. I swear, whenever we all go out all dressed up as a big group, we always seem to really pull out all of the stops and find ways to make each other laugh so hard, we all feel like we're all going to wet ourselves. I think that's a sign that you're hanging out with the right group of people - the people that make you feel like you're on top of the world and that no night could be better than the night you all had together, that is, until the next night you all go out together again.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have friends as great as my Glee gang. Sure, we've had some times when things haven't been sunshine and rainbows. For a while, Mark and Naya weren't on speaking terms, and that made things awkward around set. They were fooling around off of set and when Naya found out that Mark was flirting with a side piece... well, let's just say it wasn't pretty. We were a cast divided. It was like we had to pick sides. But even then, with all of the drama and he-said/she-said, Mark and Naya found a way to put aside their differences and become friendly again. I think that's also what makes us all so good together - we have a knack of forgiving and forgetting. We all have our days, and sometimes weeks, but in the end, we can all step back and say that no one has it better than us. Honest.

That's what made a night like tonight so great. We all had a delicious dinner at that sushi place of which I still don't know what the name was, but when we all went back to the house... well... how do I describe this? You remember that party that we all had in the 'Blame It On the Alcohol' in Rachel's basement? Yeah, it was like that, but with ten times more alcohol and ten times less clothing. As soon as we all unloaded from the cars in the driveway, we went straight to the pool and deck for drinks and dancing. Chris was the DJ for the night and he quickly set up his music, fog machines, and strobe lights as the rest of us got the beer on ice and hard liquor set up on the table. We had all stayed dressed in our fancy clothes from dinner, because seriously, it's so much more fun to go crazy when you look and feel hot.

"Think that's enough vodka to hold us over for the night?" Kevin asked me with a smirk as I lifted two large clear bottles of vodka and put them on the table.

"Maybe for an hour or two," I chuckled before reaching for two bottles of tequila. I placed them right next to the three bottles of rum that we had placed on the table just moments earlier.

"I claim this one," Heather squealed as she wrapped her hand around the neck of a tequila bottle.

"Damn girl," Chord laughed as he reached for a beer that was floating under ice water from the night before from the cooler. "You sharing that with anyone?"

Heather gripped the neck of the bottle tighter as she observed Chord's eyes staring straight at the bottle. "There's another one on the table for everyone else. You know what they say about me and tequila."

Naya laughed before hugging Heather from behind. "Tequila makes Heather's clothes fall off."

We all laughed as Heather nodded her head in agreement to Naya's statement. Mark took it one step further by giving Heather the other bottle of tequila, which really got us all going. While we were laughing and joking around at the table. Chris had gotten his music set-up going. First song, as always, was 'Single Ladies'.

And even though technically I wasn't really a single lady, you bet your ass I ran to that makeshift dance floor like my dress was on fire.

The rest of the girls, and Heather's tequila bottle, were close behind me. In perfect unison, we all did the dance moves and sang along in classic Beyoncé fashion – and of course, Chris joined us as soon as he set up the rest of his playlist. The guys looked on, all smiling and laughing, just as they always do. But this time, I sang right to Cory, did all the dance moves towards him, and flashed my ring-less left hand in his direction, playfully teasing him. Yeah, I loved this whole boyfriend thing.

Chris sure knew how to keep the party going after the first song. We all danced along to songs like 'I've Got a Feeling', 'Bootylicious', 'Thong Song', 'Sexy and I Know It', 'Born This Way', and 'Till the World Ends'. We even got some of the guys dancing – and I was even able to coax Cory out to dance with me. He especially liked 'Born This Way'… probably because he got to use the dance moves from the tour to get him through.

Halfway through probably my favorite Britney Spears song of all time, Cory leaned down and spoke right into my ear. "Want to get something to drink?"

Hesitantly, I nodded. God, I just loved this song. "Okay," I agreed, and I danced my way over to the drink table.

"Let's do shots," Cory suggested with a smirk. "We still have that challenge that we agreed on in the car."

I laughed as I danced. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Scared of losing?" he asked, and he cocked that damn eyebrow.

I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth with my teeth. Hell no, I wasn't afraid of losing. In this moment, I knew I needed to do whatever it took to win. "Shots it is," I smiled as I grabbed two tall shot glasses from the back of the table. Cory grabbed a bottle of rum and he quickly poured the honey-colored liquid into the two glasses.

I picked up my glass, and he picked up his. "Round one," he smiled before we clinked our glasses together and brought them to our lips.

The liquid slid down my throat like fire. Clearly, this wasn't going to be easy. I tried my best to keep a straight face, and I even attempted to smile. But when I saw Cory tried to hold back laughter as he looked at my face, I knew that I had failed.

"Round two?" he asked as he picked up the bottle just moments later.

I nodded my head, this time, more cautiously. "Okay," I agreed. And again, he poured the liquid into the two glasses, and we toasted, and we tossed them back. This time, it didn't burn as bad. My throat was already nearing complete numbness, and this one should have topped it off.

Cory coughed after taking his second shot, and it reassured me that I wasn't the only one struggling. "Went down the wrong pipe," he clarified to me.

I nodded my head sarcastically. "Oh, okay," I replied with a small laugh. "Ready for round three?"

"You don't want to take a break or anything?" he asked as he reached for a bottle of water to help him clear his throat.

"Oh no, no breaks. First one to get sick loses. And you know what happens when I drink and dance."

"Yeah, I do," he replied.

"I swear, I can dance and not drink, or I can drink and not dance. Once I put the two together, it's not pretty."

Cory laughed as he poured our third round of shots. "Remember your birthday party?"

I shook my head and my straight hair danced around my face and shoulders. "Never again! Who thought it was a good idea to let me have seven martinis AND THEN challenge Heather to a dance-off?"

"Wasn't that Amber's idea?" Cory asked as he handed me my third shot.

"That bitch," I laughed as we toasted and took the third shot. It didn't hurt at all this time, and dare I say it, I was beginning to like the taste of it.

We must have taken four more shots… or maybe even more, because it's not like I'd remember anything anyway, but the one thing that I do remember that brought me back from my drunken coma was falling on my ass on my way to the bathroom to pee. I must have somehow tripped over the track to the sliding glass door on my way back inside, and instead of crying like a regular girl reaction, I managed to roll onto my back and I began hysterically laughing. Cory ran and came to my rescue and he scooped me up off of the floor.

"I win," he smirked as he carried me back to our bedroom.

"Tonight, you did. Just you wait, Mr. Monteith," I slurred as I rested my head against his shoulder. "You wait."

He walked into the bedroom sideways, carefully not to bump me against the doorframe. I appreciated that. Then, he laid me on the bed. "Where are your pajamas?" he asked as he walked over to a pile of my clothes on the floor. "I'll help you change."

I allowed my eyes to close as he rummaged through my clothing, and I never responded to Cory. Somehow, I fell asleep, practically as soon as my head hit the pillow. And when I woke up in the middle of the night, jarred from my dreams and my sleep, I was under the covers in my pajamas, and a glass of water with two Advil's rested on my nightstand. I reached my hand slightly to my side, and I felt Cory there. I smiled softly before falling back asleep.


	20. Chapter 19

A/N: I want to apologize again for the lateness of this chapter! I have been extremely busy with work the past few days – parent teacher conferences are coming up, and as if that wasn't enough, I've had two large projects due for my graduate degree this week. Needless to say, I haven't had much time to write! However, this might be one of my favorite chapters :) It starts off slow, but once you hit the second part… well, just hold on. All of this 'First Time' episode hype is getting to me! So much so that I had to change the rating of the story! ;)

Please follow me on Tumblr and Twitter (links are in my profile), and please leave reviews! Love you all! xoxo – Therese

**Chapter 19**

It was already our fifth night in La Jolla. We would only be here for seven. Shit, this whole break was just flying by. With only two days left, I could tell that the house was starting to shift. More and more of us were beginning to talk about everything that we had to do once we were back in Los Angeles. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the scripts for the first episode should have been mailed to us already. Literally, our jobs were waiting for us in our mailboxes back at home. After all, shooting started in about another week, and then we'd all be together again. Only this time, Season 3 was going to be really different.

We had all recently heard that for some of us, we'd be graduating at the end of the school year. While it messed a lot of us up, knowing that this fairytale dream might be coming to an end sooner than we had hoped, we also knew we had to make this season an exceptional one. Of course, some of the cast were "juniors", like Jenna and Kevin, and I had even heard Darren might be a junior – but for people like me, Cory, and Chris… well, we were graduating. And we weren't even really sure of our futures. Would we be kept around? A spin-off? Would we even be going off to college? Would the show follow all of around? I was sure we were eventually going to be getting answers – but the waiting was the worst part. That's what made this vacation with all of us together so nice. No matter what next summer held, we had this amazing one.

And honestly, I'm terrified to think about where my life will be one year from now.

Will I still be with Cory? Will I still be living in my same rented apartment in Los Angeles? Will I still have a job? What if I get another role on Broadway? There were so many questions up in the air. And in a way, I felt very much like a senior in high school. All of these questions about the future and what was going to happen, but no answers.

I had spent pretty much the entire day outside on the deck in my bikini, hoping the sun and ocean air would help this killer headache melt away. I had tried juice and sports drinks, sleeping and taking vitamins… nothing was really working. Heather told me to exercise, but my head felt like a heavy watermelon that was glued to the back of the lounge chair. I slept for a little while, but everyone going in the pool kept waking me up.

Cory, though, had been really good to me all day – he kept coming up to me and checking on me. He even made me a salad, even thought he put too much dressing on it, and he left out the croutons. I love croutons… I figured he knew that by now. But, I guess that's just one thing I'll have to tell him about myself. He even lay on the pool chair next to mine for a while and he was nice and quiet. It was just so nice to have him next to me, especially after he took such good care of me the night before.

You know, I'm a pretty lucky girl.

The sun was beginning to set over La Jolla. Mark and Darren worked over the barbecue, preparing dinner. The smell of the hamburgers and hot dogs roasting over the fire wafted through the air, and even though I don't eat meat, I can appreciate the smell of a good cookout. I tried leaning over to peer at what else was getting ready to go on the grill and I spotted some steaks, pinwheel sausage, and chicken that was being marinated in a bowl. I even saw there were some vegetable skewers, and that made me excited. Dianna must have made those. I'm sure there were some other vegan goodies inside – you can't really barbeque tofu or anything soy. Besides, if I know Jenna, she'll whip up this amazing pasta dish that I love so dearly that when I die, I want to be buried with a bowl of it.

Cory emerged from inside the house through a sliding glass door, a bottle of beer in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. He smirked as he offered me the bottle of water. "How are you feeling?" he asked before taking a sip of his beer.

"Okay," I replied honestly as I cracked the seal of the water bottle cap. "Better than I did this morning, but still not one hundred percent." I took a sip of water. "Why did we take so many shots last night?"

Cory laughed as he gently moved my legs to the side and took a seat on the edge of my pool chair. He rested his hand on my sunscreen-slathered leg and rubbed it back and forth. "Because you challenged me."

"I should have quit while I was ahead."

"Lea Michele Sarfati isn't a quitter."

I let out a sigh before sitting up. I was dizzy at first, and I was sure that the weight of my head was going to pull me right back down to the chair. However, I gripped onto the armrests of the chair and used all my strength to stay up. "How much longer until we eat?" I asked. I hadn't really eaten anything all day since I was afraid I'd just chuck it all up. Maybe that was why I wasn't really feeling good? Sushi and shots probably weren't a great combination last night and I wasn't doing anything to help myself out today.

He quickly shrugged his shoulders. "There's some food out on the table now. Amber made bruschetta and different salads. Do you want me to help you get inside? Eating will make you feel a million times better, I promise."

I smiled before slowly swinging my legs over the edge of the chair. "I think I'll be okay," I told him as I tried standing up. Again, the weight of my head made me feel like I was going to fall right over, but I managed to take a few steps without crumbling down. Cory was close behind me, though, and I knew that if I fell, he'd make every effort he could to try and scoop me up. Such a gentleman.

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It was long after dinner. The sun had disappeared now for hours, and the skies over La Jolla were as black as the asphalt on the city streets. Small silver stars, however, lit up the sky, and the full moon glowed in the middle of the night. Strangely, everyone went to bed rather early. It was just after one in the morning, but yet, the house was quiet. I sat at the kitchen counter perched on a stool, flipping through a magazine with a cup of tea at my side. Cory was right – eating a good dinner really helped pick my health up. I didn't feel as nauseous as I thought I was going to feel, although the smell of the potato salad made me feel queasy. Maybe it was just the combination of mayonnaise and carbs.

I lifted my head up from the magazine when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs behind me. I turned my head slowly and looked over my shoulder and I saw Cory and Mark lugging large baskets of laundry up the stairs. I smirked as the two of them walked down the hallway, dropping the baskets off at the front of everyone's bedroom doors. Really, the two of them are the best together. They're the two best friends out of any of the guys on set. They just seem to understand each other, which I can appreciate. It's always nice to have a friendship that doesn't have to be talked about and worked over.

Mark retreated into one of the bedrooms, and Cory walked back down the hallway. He spotted me in the kitchen and smiled right away. "What are you doing out here? I figured you were in bed by now."

"No," I quietly responded as he approached me. He leaned down and placed his lips against mine. I smiled and kissed him back. God, he was so sweet. "I slept pretty much the whole day. It's not in the cards for me now." I looked down the hallway, and then back at Cory. "What were you and Mark doing with all of that laundry?"

He took a seat on the stool next to me. "I was keeping him company when he was doing his wash, and everyone else just left all of their stuff in there. So, the two of us just worked through it and sorted it as best as we could. Like, we knew what pieces were Chris' because they were so blatantly obvious compared to, let's say, Chord's."

"Well, I'm sure everyone will appreciate it," I smiled.

"What are you doing now?" he asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

He nodded towards the sliding glass door that led out to the pool. "Want to go for a dip?"

I looked right up into his knowing brown eyes, and I smirked. He smiled right back at me, and I wanted to melt right then and there. "Let me put my bathing suit on."

I was just about to hop off of the stool, but his hand caught mine. "No," he responded in a low, smoky voice. "You don't need it."

At that point, I was about to drop to my knees and ask the good Lord what I did right in life to deserve that response. But instead, I looked down at his hand on mine, and then I looked back up at him. "O-okay," I managed to stammer.

With my hand in his, Cory led me through the kitchen and out the sliding glass door. The deck was dark, and the only light that we could use to see were the small lights that came from the kitchen, and the small circular lights that lined the walls of the pool.

We could both hear the roar of the ocean and the waves crashing against the shore in the distance, but that was the only sound we could hear. Cory let go of my hand as soon as we reached the edge of the pool. And with one quick, but slow, motion (if that makes any sense…), he grabbed onto the sides of his shirt and pulled it up over his head. He allowed his shirt to fall to the deck and he stood shirtless in front of me.

My eyes traveled from his face to his chest, and then back up to his face. I knew what he was waiting for, because he was studying me and my body in the same manner. I grabbed for my shirt at the sides and pulled it up over my head. I dropped it to the deck, right next to his.

I never felt more naked, but more comfortable, with him in my whole life. I was standing before him in a pair of running shorts and my red lacy bra with my hair tied back and no makeup on my face, and yet, I felt at ease. We hadn't ever done anything like this before.

Almost knowing how comfortable I felt, Cory took my hand once again, and led me to the steps going into the pool. He took the first steps in, and at the speed he was going, I could tell he was cold. But even so, he bucked up and kept walking in, taking me in behind him. As soon as the cold water hit my skin, I let out a small gasp. I could only imagine how I was going to feel once my whole body was submerged in the practical ice water.

Effortlessly, Cory was able to lead me right into the water. I was shivering and every square millimeter of my skin had goosebumps on it, but with Cory, I didn't really seem to mind. As we stood in the water, he pulled my body in close to his. Chest to chest, we stood together, and he lowered his face down to mine once again. Our lips met and it was almost like an explosion of heat and electricity surged through our bodies. Our hands ran over each other's backs, and I could feel Cory getting caught up on my bra straps and clasps. I almost squealed in his mouth when his fingers ran over the silk and ruffles.

Decidedly, I had to take charge. I managed to push his body over to the wall of the pool with our lips still pressed together in a passionate, exploration-filled kiss. Now, I'm not sure how I did it, but as his body was pressed up against the wall, I lifted my legs and wrapped them around Cory's waist. I pressed my hips into him and I could feel the outline of everything through his shorts. I quickly gasped for air as his lips left mine and they traveled down my chin and to my neck. He sucked on my neck and pulled at my skin with his teeth, and I couldn't help but let out a carnal moan.

As his lips were on my neck, I could feel him begin to fumble more with the back of my bra. I knew he was going to try to take it off… it was finally happening. Everything that I've wanted since I developed this crush on him. I always wondered what it was like to _be_ with Cory Monteith… and it was all happening. I wasn't going to stop him. It was something that I had wanted for a while, and after the events of the past days, I assumed it was something that he had also wanted. And with a quick twist and a pull, I felt the back of my bra come undone, and the straps began to fall from my shoulders.

He lifted his mouth and head away from my neck and he looked deep into my eyes. Our stares were locked in with each other's for a long while as I allowed him to pull the bra off of my body. I give the man credit; he didn't look at my chest right away. Instead, we kept our chests pressed against each other's for a long while before I nodded, which was the sign he was looking for to proceed. Our lips met again while his hands began the long and exciting journey towards my breasts. Gently, he cupped them and ran his hands over them, and my body quickly fell into overdrive. My senses were extremely heightened, and my head fell back so far that the bottom of my hair fell into the pool.

It was one of the most amazing nights of my life. While Cory and I didn't have sex that night, we took hours exploring each other's bodies in the cool water out in the warm California night. By the time the both of us left the pool, the remaining clothing that we had on when we entered the pool were all floating in the deep end of the water. Cory reached in and fished them out as I wrung out my hair, letting all of the chlorine water that it had soaked up fall right back out onto the deck. We managed to grab towels that were left outside to cover our bodies as we retreated inside to shower off… together… and fall asleep… together.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

I didn't sleep for very long that night. Maybe it was the fact that Cory and I were sleeping nearly naked next to each other, or the fact that I had my sexiest encounter with a man in my entire life in the pool of our vacation home just hours earlier. Or, it could just be the fact that I had never been happier in my entire life.

I woke up around ten that morning. Instead of schlepping around the house waiting for everyone else to wake up and begin their days, I decided to be proactive and put on a pair of spandex shorts, a tank top, and my running shoes. I figured that jogging would clear my mind, at least for a little bit, and help me burn off all of the delicious food that we'd been eating throughout the week. My trainer would kill me if I went back home and was all out of shape.

I jogged through the peaceful, desolate streets for at least a half hour. It didn't feel that long, though – I guess it helps when you listen to good music at high volume levels. That tends to get you going. The weather wasn't as nice as it was on previous days. They say it really only rains twenty days out of an entire year in sunny southern California. It would suck if it rained during our last few days together on vacation.

It was hard to believe, but our vacation was nearing the end. It was the sixth day, and tomorrow, we'd all be heading back to our real lives and responsibilities. I shuddered at the mere thought. There was so much more I wanted to do. I wanted to go shopping for a cool art piece to put in my living room. I wanted to watch the sunrise from the highest point in the house. I wanted to get a pair of roller skates and skate up and down a boardwalk. There were so many things that we did do, though, like build a bonfire, visit a desolate beach, and drink our asses off. I guess we did get a good amount done, if you think about it that way…

Beads of sweat were dripping from my forehead, and my clothes were clinging to my body. The air was unusually sticky and humid, and it felt as if the clouds were going to open and rain would pour down on us. My breathing grew heavy as I jogged, and every time my feet hit the pavement, I took in a little bit more air. I actually made it pretty far before stopping for the first time – I grabbed for my water bottle and took a long gulp of cool water to relive my body. I knew I couldn't stop for long though, otherwise I'd become too relaxed. I fought through the thick air and fatigue and continued to run. I knew I had to turn back soon, though, since I had about a half hour to run on my way back.

As I ran back, my head was filled with thoughts of Cory, who was probably still fast asleep in our bed. Last night was wild, and something I never thought I'd experience with him so quickly. It had all happened so fast and it was all so romantic, but looking back, I wasn't sure if it was the best decision to do all of that so quickly. Granted, it wasn't like I had sex with him or anything. We've only been in a relationship for the past two or three days – at this point, all of the days were starting to blend together. But still, we had gotten pretty physical. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. This is Cory Monteith we're talking about here. I've only wanted to do kinky and weird things to this man's body for the past two years. But, I don't want him to get the wrong impression of me, like I'm easy or something. I want to be a challenge, something he has to work towards. And these past few nights, I've been giving it up pretty easily. Can you blame me, though? Try fighting him off of you. He's so sexy that it's physically and mentally impossible. But through all of this, I kept thinking of the little things that he's done to capture my heart in his big bear grip. The way he laughs at my jokes or little quirky things I do, the way he smiles at me from across the room, the way he can tell a corny joke and get away with it, the way he can drum on random objects in the house and actually make it sound good, the way he can tell how I'm feeling and adapt to it… just the way he understands me. I don't think I've ever had a boyfriend that was so receptive, or even expressive. Maybe it was because we've been such good friends for a while. It could also be because we've worked so closely too, with our roles on the show and press and tours and appearances and group gatherings. There's rarely a day that Cory and I go without speaking to each other.

Maybe that's the sign of a good relationship. When you can't imagine a day passing by and not having any sort of contact with the person you love.

Thinking about Cory really made the time fly by. I was spent by the time I reached the driveway of the house, enough so that I bent at the waist and rested my hands on my thighs as I struggled to catch my breath.

"You okay?" I heard Mark call out, and I straightened up to look at him.

I rested my hands on my hips as my eyes found him. He was standing on the porch without a shirt, holding a mug in his hand. "Yeah," I called back before walking slowly towards the stairs. "You're forgetting something," I remarked with a smirk as I started my way up towards him.

"Nah, you should know this by now. Shirts aren't my thing."

I smiled as I reached the top step, and I was still breathing heavily. "What's everyone else up to?" I asked him, nodding towards the house.

"I don't know, really," Mark replied. "Cory is hanging out by the pool, if that's what you were wondering."

I shook my head. "No, I was asking about everyone." I was lying.

He chuckled before taking a sip of coffee. It was black, and I'm sure there wasn't a grain of sugar in it. "Come on, Lea. Really?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked him before pressing my lips tightly together. Something was up.

"You don't have to hide it or anything. We all know."

"Know what?"

"That you two are an item."

I chuckled softly under my breath. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"We all saw you two in the pool last night."

My heart sank to my stomach, like a fatal blow to the gut at the height of an intense boxing match with millions of dollars and a title belt on the line. I looked into Mark's deep brown eyes and furrowed my eyebrows deeply. "You were watching us?" I hissed, my voice low and angry. "All of you were watching us?"

"Not the whole time," he admitted, but I wasn't sure if I could believe it. "Just long enough to put all of the pieces together. It's not like we're mad or anything."

"That's not the point," I combatted, shaking my head. "That was going to be something that Cory and I would have told everyone on our own terms. We didn't want the mood in the house to be strange or uncomfortable."

"It wasn't like you two were being discreet," he replied. I had nothing to reply with, so he continued speaking. "Listen, it's not strange or weird or anything, and we don't think of you two any differently. If you want me to be completely honest with you, we were all surprised it took you guys two years to do something about your feelings."

I let out a heavy sigh before turning away from Mark. I looked out onto the main road in front of the house, searching for a way to reply and handle the situation. Really, I wasn't sure why I was mad or upset, besides the fact that it was such a severe invasion of privacy. They were all going to know eventually, and maybe it was all right that they found out this way. We wouldn't have to explain anything, and there wouldn't be this weird shift after we broke the news… But still, they watched us as if we were some animals that were mating in a zoo.

"Was it at least sexy?" I said before looking back towards him with a small smirk.

Mark chuckled before turning back towards the house. "You got a rise out of a few of us," he admitted before entering the house, leaving me on the porch to laugh.

Even though I was laughing, my insides were in turmoil. Something had to be done, and quick. I had to get to Cory.


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

"You busy?" I asked Cory as I poked my head out through the sliding glass doors. I had changed into a pair of khaki shorts and a comfortable flowing blue tank top, with flip flops on my feet and my hair pulled back into a messy low side ponytail. It was the quickest look I could put together – something that only took me about five minutes.

"No," he replied, putting his phone down towards his lap. "Why?"

"Don't ask questions. Come inside, put clothes on, and give me your car keys."

Cory froze for a moment, but he followed my directions without comment. I couldn't help but smirk – I loved a man that didn't ask many questions. But honestly, it was all happening so fast, I wasn't even sure if I had any answers. I just had my idea and my destination.

Cory brushed past me as he walked into the house, and the feeling of his skin against mine brought a smile to my face. But as our bodies made contact, I could feel all of the eyes in the house on us. I could even hear someone snicker, but by the time I turned around, it was quiet.

I followed Cory downstairs to our bedroom, but not before Chris gave me an exaggerated knowing wink. I struggled to keep a straight face as I clomped down the stairs behind my boyfriend.

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"You know how much I trust you right now? The fact that the worst driver I know is driving my truck, and I have no idea what's going on?" Cory asked me. I looked over towards him, and I could see that his knuckles were white-as-snow as he gripped onto the armrest of his seat.

I smirked. "Will you relax?" I requested of him as I relaxed my grip on the steering wheel, which made him gasp for air. "Ye of little faith."

"I'm sorry," he stated as he used his other hand to nervously flip through radio stations. ""It's just… you know what this truck means to me. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to it."

I looked away from the road towards him, and I could practically hear his heart drop to his stomach. "I'll have you know that I have a driver's license in three states. Three!"

"Oh my god, please look where you're driving," Cory muttered under his breath.

Laughing, I looked back towards the road. I didn't say anything further. But, through the silence, I knew that he knew where we were going. We were driving down that one street that went to the beach… our beach. Honestly, I was impressed with myself that I remembered really where I was going. I can't really say that happens too often. I usually have a stack of directions printed out from websites, but never ask me to read a map. It took me about a year to understand how to read a New York City subway map, and that was color-coded.

After only a few minutes of driving in absolute silence, we arrived at the beach. The skies were looking darker, and even though it was still the afternoon, there was virtually no one around. This was the greatest beach ever!

Cory took a deep sigh of relief as I cut the engine and took the key out of the ignition. He released his death grip on the armrest and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Okay," he whispered before exiting the car.

"You are the worst!" I joked as I hopped out of the drivers seat, slamming the door shut behind me. "You're acting like I was driving blindfolded through Times Square or something."

"I'm sorry," he apologized as I walked around towards him. He reached down and took my hand before the two of us started walking towards the steps that led to the beach. "What are we doing here, anyway?"

I kicked off my flip-flops before walking into the sand, taking a mental note on where I left them. I already lost one pair of shoes on this very beach; I didn't want to lose another. Cory kicked his shoes off after me and placed them next to mine.

"Let's go for a walk down by the water," I suggested before leading him into the sand, not waiting to hear his reply.

We were quiet before we got to the water, but as soon as the cool water crashed upon the shore and submerged our feet and ankles in the foamy, sandy, watery mix, we both jumped and scampered from the water as quickly as we could while laughing. Our skin just wasn't ready for the temperature.

"So, I'll ask you again," Cory smirked as we began walking along the shoreline. "Why are we here?"

With my free hand, I pushed a fly-away hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. "Well, I figured we just needed some time away from the house." Our feet began sinking into the saturated sand and the wet clumpy sand filled the spaces between our toes. "It's not much of a vacation if you're surrounded by tons of people you see every day."

"Then why aren't you here by yourself?" Cory questioned as he rubbed his thumb against the top of my thumb.

"I went jogging by myself earlier. That's my alone, quiet me-time. Now, I wanted to spend this time with you. Just you."

Cory looked down at me and smiled. "I'll accept that answer."

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something," I blurted out. At first, I wished I could have reached out, grabbed the words I muttered, and shoved them all back in my mouth. What was I thinking, bringing up a matter that I was about to bring up so quickly on our outing? But after thinking about it for a few nanoseconds, I realized that maybe it wasn't the worst idea. If I just got it out there, then we could just talk about it and get it over with, and move on with our afternoon.

"Okay," he replied innocently.

I inhaled deeply before speaking, knowing there was no going back. "Basically, we've been together now for only a few days, and I feel like in these past few days, we've moved faster and have done so much more together than other newly coupled couples can say that they've done. I mean, if you thing about it, we've now slept in the same bed together and had multiple sexy make-out sessions with an extreme loss of clothing. The one last night, apparently, we had an audience."

Unexpectedly, Cory started laughing. "Sadly, I figured we would. I just tried to ignore the idea of being peeped on, but I was getting some really different looks around the house today. Kind of made me feel like a boss."

"Oh my gosh, stop it!" I squealed before laughing. "I feel so embarrassed!"

"Why?" he smirked. "What was so wrong with what we did?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. Nothing was wrong with it, I guess. I'm just a private person, you know that. Maybe that it was just because it was the first time that we did anything like that, that I just wanted it to be something between the two of us."

"It always will be just between the two of us. We were the two in the pool. It was your body that my hands were wrapped around. Who cares if people were watching? Clearly we must have been putting on a pretty good show. It wasn't like they were turning away in disgust, and that's what most people do when they see me shirtless."

I laughed loudly before hitting Cory on his arm with my free hand. "You're terrible," I said with a bright voice. "But really, do you get what I'm getting at?"

"Yes, yes, yes," Cory confirmed before squeezing my hand.

"Do you want to see what happens if we maybe take things a little slower?" I questioned.

Cory stopped walking, which made me stop quickly. My stomach flopped as Cory dropped my hand. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, I messed this up.

"Hi," he then said, offering out his hand. "I don't think we've met."

I looked down at his hand before looking up at him. A large gust of wind bellowed on the beach, tossing stray hairs around my head. I put my hand in his and shook it. "My name is Lea. And you are?"

"Cory," he replied with a tiny smirk before releasing my hand. He tucked both of his hands in the pockets of his shorts. "You come around here often?" he asked, nodding his head towards the ocean.

"No," I replied. "I'm from New York."

"What are you doing in La Jolla, then?"

I smiled before clearing my throat. He wasn't kidding with this re-introduction. "I'm here on vacation with some friends from work. I have a job up in Los Angeles. What about you, what brings you here?"

"Struggling actor," he replied quickly.

While I was fishing for something to come back with, I felt a few raindrops fall onto my face and shoulders. I tried to ignore it, but suddenly, as if the skies had opened, rain poured from the sky.

I looked up at the sky and the rain fell into my face. I let out a loud gasp as I felt Cory grab for my hand, and we took off running down the beach. I laughed as I jogged alongside him, and in the distance, we saw a rock formation. We must have both seen it at the same time, because he pointed to it just as I had noticed it. It didn't take us long to get there. I'm big into running, and Cory just took strides as if he was a gazelle. The boy has long legs.

We made it to the arched rock formation on the beach and we stood underneath the widest part of the rock for cover from the rain. I laughed as I wiped the rain off of my face, and Cory ran his hands through his brown hair to shake the water from it.

As we sought protection from the rain, we were both quiet. It was incredibly relaxing, listening to the sound of falling rain in combination with the sound of the ocean crashing upon the shore. After a few moments, Cory wrapped his arm around my shoulder and he pulled me in close to his body. I looked up at him from the corner of my eye, and I couldn't help but just think about all of the things that I absolutely loved about him.

The way he protects me. The way his skin feels against mine. The way he isn't afraid to take risks. The way he understands our differences. The way he finds a way to make my weaknesses strengths. The way he knows how to talk to me. The way he understands my thought processes.

I really could have went on and on with all of the things that I loved. But as I was thinking, he interrupted my thought processes. He bent down and placed a small, light kiss on my forehead, like he knew that I was wrapped up in him. And with that one small little kiss, I allowed myself to relax completely into his body and let my mind go blank. This moment… it was pure bliss.


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

Cory volunteered to drive back to the house after the shower had passed. It didn't rain for very long, maybe only ten minutes, but it absolutely poured. I hadn't seen such heavy rain since the one time I decided to rough out a summer vacation in Florida during a hurricane. But even though we were covered by the overhead of the rock we were standing under, the wind still managed to blow the rain towards us, making our clothes nice and damp. Luckily, we found our shoes right where we had left them, although I still hadn't found my shoes from the previous time we were there. Those were probably long gone by now – which is sad, because I loved those shoes.

As I sat next to Cory, though, with his left hand on the wheel and his right hand stretched out and draped around my shoulder, I came to a sudden realization. That rock that we had found on the beach together… that was our special place. Sure, Cory and the guys had found the beach, and because other people had known about it, it couldn't have been ours. But that rock – that formation that we found in the rain – that was _ours_. Something that the two of us can always have together. Somewhere that we can go when we needed time away from the rest of the world. That somewhere only we know.

I reached up and clutched onto Cory's hand around my shoulder. His skin was warm. I squeezed onto his hand tightly as I looked towards him. "All in all, I think this was a pretty great vacation," I smiled.

"Yep, it was pretty good if you ask me," he replied, looking over at me quickly. The sun had peeked through the clouds and it shone into the front windshield of the car. Both of us had to put a pair of sunglasses on to make driving against the light easier. He focused his eyes quickly back on the road.

"I just can't believe we all go home tomorrow."

Cory shrugged before making a left-hand turn onto the main street in La Jolla. "Where did the time go? I feel like I just picked you up from your dead car up in Los Angeles, and then in probably 24 hours from now, I'll be dropping you off at that same, very dead car."

"Don't remind me," I shook my head. "I'll probably need to get it towed somewhere to get a new battery or whatever it needs. Probably oil and whatever other fluids it needs too. I don't even know when I was supposed to do all of that stuff."

"You mean an inspection?" I could hear him smile, even though I didn't see it.

"I guess," I chuckled. "It's a good thing I have a man like you now in my life. I can now ask Cory the boyfriend to take my car in to the shop for this inspection. Cory the boyfriend probably would have laughed in my face before pointing me in the right direction."

"Hey! That's not true," he laughed. "I would have probably driven you to the inspection guy. That car has enough problems, it doesn't need you at the wheel."

"Thanks a lot," I smirked before hitting him lightly on the hand that was still draped around my shoulder.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

We all wound up in the kitchen that night. The sun was beginning to set over La Jolla. All of our windows and the sliding glass door were wide open to let as much as the ocean breeze in as possible. We were all completely comfortable and dressed down. Most of us had been working on getting our laundry done and all packed up to go home the next day, and we ended up working ourselves until we were starved.

"What's for dinner?" Chris asked as he leaned over the kitchen counter with his cell phone in his hand. "What do we want to order in?"

"We're not ordering in," Kevin replied before walking over to the refrigerator.

"Then what are we doing?" Heather asked as she walked over to Kevin. The two of them stared into the refrigerator together.

"We'll have a cook-off," Kevin suggested, and right away, it was clear that he had been watching a Top Chef marathon.

I couldn't help but laugh. "How are we going to do that? All you guys know is how to work the barbeque."

"Not true," Darren smiled. "We're better cooks than you all think."

"Really?" Dianna chimed in. "Cups of ramen noodles and chicken nuggets don't count, you know."

"Sausage and peppers do, though," Chord smirked.

At that moment, all of us vegans practically choked on our tongues. Gross, we don't know how any of them can eat that stuff. But then again, they all make weird faces when we break out our tofu.

"Fine," Jenna spoke, making her way towards the middle of the kitchen. We all looked at her intently. "Guys, you'll be cooking dinner. Remember, we need vegetarian options. Girls, we'll take on desserts. No cheating and no ordering-in. We have two hours."

"Deal," Cory said, nodding his head. "You're on."

Quickly, he kissed me on the top of my head before whispering, "This is war."

I laughed and scurried to join the girls while all of the guys huddled together. Swiftly, we planned out our dessert menu. Cupcakes and cookies. It needed basic ingredients that we knew we had. It wasn't anything fancy or special, but we knew they were going to be damn good.

While we worked on gathering our ingredients and bringing them over to the dining room table to start preparing our batters, we could overhear the guys quarreling over the meals that they would attempt making. Through it all, we were able to figure out that they would try their hand at making basic pasta with tomato sauce, sausage and peppers, and stuffed mushrooms.

It took both groups of us longer than expected to prepare our meals. Us girls had it harder – none of us knew how to make these things from scratch off the top of our heads, so we needed to do a bit of searching for a decent recipe for which we had all of the ingredients. The guys seemed to work a bit quicker, but we all knew that none of them had any idea what they were doing.

Maybe a half hour after we found a good recipe and prepared it, we were ready to pop it in the oven. Dianna walked the tray of cookie dough into the kitchen and I followed closely behind with the cupcake pan.

The guys were franticly working, stirring things in pots, poking other things with forks, and tasting bits of sauces, careful not to burn their tongues. Chris even had an apron tied around his waist. We popped our trays into the oven before gathering plates and utensils to set the dining room table that the rest of the girls were cleaning off. We decided to give the guys a break, really let them focus on their meal.

About twenty minutes later, long after us girls finished setting the table and our conversations about manicures, pedicures, and spa treatments, and even after pulling our cookies and cupcakes out of the oven to cool, the boys started to bring their meals over to the table.

"This should be good," Jenna smiled as she took her seat at the table.

"So glad they made a salad," Dianna sarcastically stated, which brought a stern-faced reply from Mark as he placed the bowl of pasta and sauce on the table.

And like a scene out of a movie, as Chord was carrying his plate of stuffed mushrooms over to the table, he stumbled on virtually nothing and fell to the floor, sending his mushrooms rolling on the hardwood floor and the ceramic plate shattered into a million pieces. It was one of those things that you just wished that you had a camera to capture so you could send it into a television show and make an easy $10,000. We all broke out hysterically laughing, even the guys, and Cory scampered right past Chord to save the mushrooms. "Five second rule!" he squealed as he collected them all from the floor.

Turns out, though, none of them could be saved. They all had some shards of porcelain in them from the initial break of the platter. After Chord found his way back to his feet, he worked on cleaning up chunks of the platter while Cory tossed the mushrooms in the garbage. The guys were now down to two plates.

"The sausage and mushrooms might be a little…" Darren paused as he placed the bowl on the table, searching for the right word before continuing, "smoky."

Out of curiosity, us girls looked into the bowl, to find the sausage and peppers with a nice charred coat, clear that everything had burned. None of us were going to attempt to eat that, especially us vegans. Down to one.

I can't lie, Kevin's pasta and sauce didn't look terrible. After all, it was the one dish that was saved, and the only vegan option on the table. We all took a few minutes to collect ourselves and clean up the mess that Chord had created before finally deciding to sit down and dig in to the last chance that dinner had.

We all spooned our pasta and sauce onto our plates. And after we all had our portions, we toasted to our last dinner in the house with our glasses of wine or bottles of beer, before digging in.

Now, I think we were all trying to be nice. As soon as I took the first bite, I knew that this meal wasn't going to fly. The pasta was severely undercooked, and the sauce was terribly bland. I wasn't the only one who had this understanding, though – as soon as I formed my opinion, I looked up around the table and I saw matching sets of weird expressions as they chewed statically on the meal. Now, the real test… who was going to be the first to say something?

Of course, I should have assumed that it would have been Naya to pipe up first. "What are you trying to do, bee, kill us?" she quipped as she dropped her fork to the plate after hesitantly swallowing her food.

Mark reached for his bottle of beer to wash down the taste of the food. "Yeah, man, I understand we were cooking on the same team and everything, but this is rough."

Kevin could only laugh as he put his head in his hands. "I guess watching Top Chef doesn't make me a good chef."

"Guess not," Heather smiled as she got up and started collecting everyone's plates. "We're not wasting calories on this meal. Tonight, let's just do cupcakes and cookies for dinner."

"But the cupcakes aren't frosted yet," I pouted. Everyone knows the best part of cupcakes is the frosting.

"Who cares?" Cory asked as he stood up to help Heather collect the plates. "We'll frost them together and then eat them. Cook-off battle is off."

"Oh, because us girls won and you guys don't want to admit a loss?" Dianna smiled before taking a sip of wine.

"Sure," Darren nodded.

We all managed to make our way into the kitchen. The food we didn't eat went straight into the garbage – we wouldn't want to save it or donate it to anyone. That's just cruel. Instead of really cleaning up after dinner, we ended up tossing everything into the sink and taking our cookies, cupcakes, and frosting to the deck by the pool. Together, we sat there with our butter knives and cups of frosting and decorated our cupcakes to our liking.

It was the most wonderful time, and I don't want to get cheesy or sappy or anything. But just all of us being together, just laughing and talking and doing something as simple as decorating cupcakes and eating dessert for dinner, it just completes me in a way that nothing else can. I'm just so thankful for my best friends – nothing comes close to the way they all make me feel. And with Cory at my side, well, it just doesn't get any better.


	24. Story Update

Hello everyone!

Super sorry about the delay with the final chapters – things have been CRAZY over on my end, between teaching, writing papers and putting together presentations for my graduate school classes, and dealing with a terrible bout of tonsillitis and infections that have rendered me weak and practically useless!

The final three or four chapters will be posted soon, really as quickly as I can type them. I'm incredibly sorry about the delay, especially because we're close to the end!

I just wanted to send out an incredible amount of thanks and gratitude to those who have found, read, reviewed, favorited, and subscribed to both the story and me in the time that I have stepped away from it! Your love and support is incredible – you'll never know how much it means to me!

I look forward to posting the next chapter soon – and then beginning work on the **sequel**, which will be posted beginning **February 1****st**! It will be titled _I Can't Wait_… and trust me, I can't wait to share it with you!

With all my love,

Therese


	25. Chapter 23

**A/N: Hey everyone! I know this one is extremely short, and I'm very sorry about that, but it's completely meant to be a transitional chapter to get to the last two chapters. Those two chapters should be posted within the week, or early next week! Hope you all enjoy this chapter :) - Therese**

**Chapter 23**

As soon as I woke up the next morning, a felt a pain in the depths of my stomach. The vacation was over – we were all pretty much waking up to get in our cars and go home. I guess I had gotten up pretty early, since Cory was still snoring deeply next to me. The rest of the house, though, was still quiet, and the light that made its way through the cracks and folds of the curtains that shielded the windows was a light, golden yellow with a few streams of a beautiful orange.

I rolled over carefully to look at Cory, mindful to not move the bed too much, or accidentally nudge him and knock him out of his sleep. We were sleeping in a bed way too small for two people, though… well, at least for one giant and one regular sized girl. While my covers were tightly pulled around my neck, the rest of the blanket was pushed down around his chest, with his long arms pressing it down onto the rest of his body. His head lay flat against the pillow and his mouth was agape, which led to the source of the snoring, of course. Really, out of all of the times that Cory had fallen asleep somewhere where we were, he really hadn't snored all too much.

I watched him closely, and not in the creepy stalker way. The loving girlfriend way, of course. I observed his chest and watched as it rose and fell with each breath. I then looked towards his face. His eyelids were gently closed and his face was relaxed.

If Cory had to be summed up in one word at this very moment, it would be _innocent_. If it had to be two words, the other one would be _peaceful_. And why not just add a third one? _Perfect_. There you go, world, my boyfriend was _innocent_, _peaceful_, and _perfect_. At least in this moment, anyway. Once he wakes up and lets out a good morning fart, everything changes. He's a man, though, so how much can you really expect at the end of the day?

I let out a quiet sigh before rolling carefully onto my back. God, I did not want to go home. Going home simply meant returning to the real world. Work, telephone calls, e-mails, food shopping, paying bills and rent, doing more laundry, memorizing the first script for Season 3, going for wardrobe fittings, going to photoshoots, doing interviews, recording new songs… the longer I thought about it, the more I was giving myself to do. Would it be so wrong to stay in this house here in La Jolla for another week? Or another month? What about a year? That seems like a good amount of time.

I love my job, but why would you want to work when probably the best part about working is laying in bed next to you in a beautiful rental house with your best friends?

I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to push all of the things on the growing 'to-do' list out of my head. Right now, laying next to Cory and making the best out of the last day here was my only task.


	26. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

"Darren, toss me my suitcase!" Kevin yelled from the driveway up at the porch, hoping that Darren, who was dragging everyone's bags out the door, would hear him.

"I don't remember coming here with such a heavy suitcase," Naya complained as she used all the strength in her body to lift up her black suitcase to shove it in the trunk of one of the cars.

"Where'd I put my car keys?" Amber groaned as she clomped down the stairs inside the house to continue her search.

Everyone sounded busy and frantic. It was the middle of the afternoon and all of the drivers wanted to get a start on heading home, before it got too late and they got too restless.

Cory and I, well, we kinda copped out. While everyone else was outside packing up the cars, we made ourselves look busy by "cleaning up the kitchen." We volunteered right away when we both got out of bed to clean up the house and return the key to the rental offices, meaning we would be the last ones out of the house. No one really minded, simply because no one wanted to clean up the house and return it to a condition that we wouldn't receive charges for. Really, just the kitchen and bathrooms needed cleaning, because clearly we live like slobs when we're not in our own places.

So, while everyone else was loading up their cars and preparing to say their goodbyes, I had my hands in dirty dishwater and Cory was right by my side, drying each dish and cup thoroughly.

Our room was still unpacked, and we weren't anywhere near ready to go home.

Dianna made her way up the stairs and walked into the kitchen. "You sure you want to stay behind and clean up?" she asked me. "It doesn't take two people to lock up and return a key, you know," she added, before throwing a quick smirk at Cory.

I nodded quickly. "Oh, yeah, it's not a problem at all," I replied confidently before handing Cory a wet plate. "Besides, Cory and I came together. We're leaving together too."

Dianna nodded before looking behind her at the empty house. "I think Jenna and I are going to head out now, then. We were talking about grabbing some dinner when we got back around home."

I pouted my bottom lip and my heart began to sink. You know on _The Real World_ or on _Jersey Shore_ or something like that, whenever people start leaving the house, everyone gets sad and they start hugging each other like they'll never see each other again, and that sad slow music starts to play in the background? Yeah, that's kinda how this was beginning to play out in my head. Quickly, I removed my hands from the water and dried them off on a dry towel before shuffling over to Dianna to give her a big hug.

"I can't believe this is ending," I muttered into her shoulder.

With her arms wrapped around my waist, she nodded into my neck. "I'll see you tomorrow. Brunch?"

"Sounds good," I replied as I pulled away. Cory was behind me, and he was next to give Dianna a hug.

"We should go downstairs," I told Cory when their hug had ended, and the three of us headed downstairs.

We walked out onto the porch, and everyone was beginning to gather around the cars. The trunks were all closed. Shit, it was time to say goodbye.

After we made our way to the driveway and we all stood in this weird, unplanned circle thing, it got eerily quiet between all of us. It was hard for any of us to keep eye contact with each other for longer than a few seconds, and in the end, we all ended up looking at the ground. I kicked a few gravel pebbles around, hoping that distracting myself from my feelings would keep me from crying.

"I guess this is the end of the vacation, you guys," Kevin finally said quietly.

"Easily one of the best weeks of my life," Cory added. I looked up at him, and our eyes met. He smiled softly at me, and that was all I really needed to break. A tear escaped out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh no!" Jenna whined, noticing my tear. "You're going to make me cry!"

"No, don't cry," I replied back to her before wiping my little tear away. Jenna walked over to me and gave me a hug, and we both started to giggle out of silliness as we continued to cry.

"You bitches need to pull it together before I lose it," Chris said coolly before covering his eyes with his Ray Bans.

Jenna pulled away from the hug but we stood together, both wiping tears from our cheeks.

"Let's not make this any more ridiculous than it needs to be. We'll all see each other for brunch in the morning. Same time, same place, same booth. Deal?" Mark asked as he pulled his car keys from his pocket.

"Deal," Naya replied, smirking at Mark.

"Here are all the extra keys to return," Chord said to Cory, handing him the two extra keys that we had all shared. Cory slipped them into his pocket, and the metal clinked together as they fell in place.

And then it came time for the hardest part of the whole trip – saying goodbye. We all hugged each other, sometimes two or three times, in the middle of the driveway. I'm sure if any of the neighbors looked out their windows, they must have thought someone died with the way we were carrying on. For some reason, I was extremely emotional. I cried a little bit more at every new hug, and on some t-shirts, I even left little tear trails. Damn my softie personality!

After we had all finished hugging each other and wishing each other well on their trips home, Cory and I stood back at the bottom of the stairs as everyone loaded into the cars. He wrapped his arm around my waist as the ignitions started. I released a heavy breath from my lungs as Amber's car pulled out of the driveway first.

"It's okay," Cory whispered. "You'll see them tomorrow."

Maybe it wasn't about that for me. It wasn't the idea that my friends were leaving and that I wouldn't find a way to go on without them, because honestly, this wasn't the first time that we've all left after a day together. It was more the idea that this week was one of those life-changing weeks that brought everyone closer together and created these amazing memories that you wouldn't necessarily tell your kids about because they were _that_ good. It was a week where one of my greatest fantasies came to life and it didn't come back to bite me in the ass. Turns out, fantasy boy liked me back. Really, he isn't a fantasy – he's my other half in many, many ways. Now, he's all mine, I can call him my own.

Each car left after each other, and the last car that held Mark, Kevin, and Chord, pulled out last. As they began to drive away from the house, Mark honked the horn twice. And then, Cory and I were left in silence.

"You going to be okay?" Cory asked before leaning down and kissing me on the top of my head.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah," I whispered before wiping trickling tears from my face. "I'll be okay."

"Want to go inside and pack?"

"No," I chuckled. I was being honest.

"Are you going to make me do it?" he asked. I wasn't looking at his face, but I knew he was smiling. "What if I pack all your dirty laundry with your clean laundry, or if I accidentally forget to pack all your makeup?"

"What if I kick your ass if you wrinkle my favorite dress?"

He chuckled. "There's the girl I know. Come on, help me out."

We walked up the stairs together hand in hand. I took a deep breath in and let it out again before walking into the house. I didn't like the silence in here. It was like being in a stranger's house, and as soon as I realized how quiet and empty it was, I knew it was time to go home.


	27. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

I zipped my last suitcase closed, and I swear, the sound of the metal locking together echoed through the bedroom. I was alone down here, finishing my packing and making sure that nothing was left behind. Cory was somewhere upstairs making sure all of the windows and doors were closed and locked. I could faintly hear his footsteps.

It was just about an hour after everyone else had left. I had cried for a while, admittedly, but getting myself busy by packing and getting everything ready to go had gotten my mind off of the sadness. It had now turned into a mission just to get home. I wasn't exactly sure what was waiting for me when I got there, and I'm not exactly sure how to feel about that. Things probably won't go back to normal; I expect changes, good ones too. Maybe Cory and I were going to have to make a game plan on the drive home. Lord only knows what else we'd have to talk about.

"How's everything going down here?" Cory called out to me as he clomped down the stairs.

"Okay," I replied loudly as I dragged my bag off the bed. It hit the floor with a loud thud.

Cory entered the room and we both took a pause to just breathe. As I looked into his eyes, I knew he was ready to go. After all, his bags… well, just his one bag… was already in the car. "You need help taking those out?" he asked, nodding his head towards my small mountain of suitcases.

I laughed softly. "I think so. I'll grab my handbag."

He rolled his eyes as he picked up two of my suitcases. "That thing might as well be a suitcase in itself," he commented as I tossed my unnecessarily large handbag over my shoulder. "You crazy bag lady."

"Hey!" I exclaimed before reaching out to strike him playfully on his arm. "You never know when you need a first aide kit, a book to read, a can of hairspray, or a granola bar."

"So, point proved," he smirked before walking out of the bedroom.

I could only groan and laugh as I followed him out. He carried my bags down the stairs with ease, and I followed after him closely. He tossed my bags into the trunk of his truck, and as I found a good space for my handbag in the front seat, he jogged up the stairs and made his way into the house to gather my remaining bags. By the time I shut the door and walked around the front of the car, he was making his way back out of the house and down the stairs with the rest of my things.

"The last time I carried luggage this heavy, I was going snowboarding for a week with different pairs of boots, boards, and helmets," he groaned as he carried the bags to the back of the truck, visibly slower this time, though.

I took a quick gasp and smiled. "So this means you'll carry my ski equipment when you taking me to your favorite mountain in Vancouver?" I teased.

"You're funny today," Cory smirked before groaning as he packed my bags in the trunk. "You're schlepping your own skis and boots, little lady."

"Will you pay for my lift ticket, then?" I asked as I walked towards him, flashing him some super-adorable puppy eyes.

"Only one way," he smirked.

I laughed before wrapping my arms around his waist. "You're the funny one today."

"Am I?" he asked as he leaned his head on top of my head. "And I didn't know you could ski."

"I didn't say I could do it well," I quickly replied. "But, I could hold my own on a green."

Cory let out a deep, loud laugh that seemingly shook my bones. I moved away from his body so I could look up at him with angry eyes. "What are you laughing at?" I asked him.

"You're adorable," he laughed. "Greens?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Oh, honey," he replied before kissing me on the forehead. If he wasn't making fun of my skiing abilities, I would have totally thought this was cute. "I'm a black diamond kind of snowboarder."

"Show-off," I chuckled before stepping away from him.

"Want to come back inside and make sure everything is finished with the house? I always need another set of eyes."

I nodded. "Sure," I replied. We walked up the steps to the house for the last time, both of us knowing that the next time we'd be outside, we'd be leaving.

As soon as we stepped into the house, I set up a mental check-list in my head, sort of like a to-do list before we locked the doors and left this place. Make sure all of the closets and space underneath the beds have been checked for any forgotten belongings, make sure all of the bathrooms are clear, and shut off any and all lights that were left on. While I was doing all of this, Cory went outside to check over the pool and deck area one last time. As I walked through the house, I couldn't help but just think of all of the amazing memories we've had, what stories these walls could have told. Like, for example, Heather and Naya taking a massive bubble bath together in the Jacuzzi-tub in the master suite bathroom. Or, that drunken night that Mark went streaking. Oh, can't forget about the third night when Kevin and Amber tried to light the fireplace and nearly set the living room on fire. Instead of being sad that this was all over, surprisingly, I was beginning to smile. Maybe next summer, we'd all have to come back here for another week of amazing memories.

I walked into the kitchen to shut off the recessed lighting, and just as I flipped the switch, Cory walked in. His hands were tucked deep into the pockets of his black basketball shorts. "What do you say, Sarfati? Ready to get on the road?"

I let out a soft laugh before walking over to him and burying my face into his grey t-shirt. In this quiet house, now was the best time to bring up the future. What he was thinking about for when we get home, or quite possibly, his lack of thought. It was completely possible that this was just a one-week trial thing and when we get home, everything just goes back to normal. I wouldn't know, though, unless I asked. I inhaled deeply and muttered the words every boyfriend hates to hear. "Babe, can I ask you a question?" I asked quietly.

I felt Cory's chest tense up. "Yeah," he replied a few moments later.

"What comes next? For us?"

"Well, what do you want?" he asked. Great, thanks for flipping this on me.

"I want to spend time with you."

"I can do that."

I smiled into his shirt, but quickly afterwards, I hoped I didn't smudge my lipstick on him. "I want to do date nights, even if it's the biggest pain in the ass in the world and they get destroyed by attention or paparazzi or whatever. I want to go to the movies, grab dinner, play mini-golf, or whatever comes up. I don't even care."

Cory leaned his cheek on the top of my head as he wrapped his arms around my petite waist. "I want to take you to hockey games and concerts."

"Fine by me."

"Me too. We'll take turns, you know? Dinner and a game, or a concert and a café run afterwards… whatever," he replied, being totally fair. I didn't even understand the concept of a boyfriend being so understanding and willing to compromise. I wasn't complaining whatsoever.

It's completely incredible what one week will do to you. Your life changes from second to second, and those changes are either the best things to ever happen to you to the most catastrophic things you could imagine to completely ordinary things that keep you going. And when you are able to spend so many seconds with someone that turn into minutes, hours, and days… well, you're changed forever. I'll always look back at this week as the week that changed my life. The week that made me take a step back and realize how lucky I am to have these amazing people in my life that I consider closer to me than family sometimes. In the end, I have one person to by my side to look up to and say "I love you" to one day, and not because it's in a script. It'll be because I mean it, and he'll say it back because he'll mean it too. And when life gets too crazy and we need a chance to step away from the madness, we'll always have our spot on the beach, under that random rock formation that we used for shelter in the rain. That somewhere only we know.

"We need to go," Cory whispered, breaking my inner monologue. "If we leave any later than this, we'll hit rush hour traffic."

"I don't want to," I whispered.

"Me either, honestly," he replied before picking his head up off of my head. "But, we can only start our new journey through this crazy new life of hours if we head home."

I smiled before standing on my tip-toes and placing a small kiss on his lips. "In that case, I can't wait."

**A/N: Well, this is the end of ****Somewhere Only We Know****! I am terribly sad to have ended this one, but as with everything, good things must come to an end.**

**I want to thank EVERYONE for their incredible amount of support, love, and friendship since beginning this story in June. The comments and reviews kept me going when I didn't have energy left – this one is for you!**

**Remember that the SEQUEL to SOWK will be titled ****I Can't Wait**** and it will be posted on February 1****st****! Follow me on Tumblr and Twitter (links in my profile), and add me to your Author Alert list for the first notification that it is posted! Also, you can follow me on Tumblr for the sneak peak of the story cover, which will be posted in a few days.**

**Again, thank you all for your love and support – you mean the world to me! Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting/favoriting/subscribing/alerting/READING! **

**With all my love, Therese**

**xoxo**


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